On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 12:22 PM, Izaac <iz...@setec.org> wrote: > On Wed, Oct 03, 2012 at 06:52:57PM +0200, Seth Mos wrote: >> "Pick a number between this and that." It's the 80's and you can >> still count the computers in the world. :) > > And yet, almost concurrently, IEEE 802 went with forty-eight bits. Go > figure. I'm pretty sure the explanation you're looking for is: It was > with the word size of the most popular minis and micros at the time.
The 48 bit MAC was 1980; notable that it was not primarily handled in software / CPUs (ethernet key functionality is in dedicated interface hardware, though the stack is MAC-aware obviously). CPU register bit length is less critical when you have a dedicated controller of arbitrary bittedness handling MACs. -- -george william herbert george.herb...@gmail.com
