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Differences between current version and predecessor to the previous major change of GBIC.

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Newer page: version 4 Last edited on Tuesday, August 12, 2003 9:24:45 pm by CraigBox
Older page: version 1 Last edited on Tuesday, August 12, 2003 9:33:03 am by LindsayDruett Revert
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
-!Stands for Gigabit Interface Converters %%% 
+[Acronym] for __G__iga__B__it __I__nterface __C__onverters %%% 
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 Used throughout Cisco's Product range to provide versitility amoungst their Gigabit uplinks. 
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 Cisco offers a range of Gigabit Interface Converters (GBICs) and Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) for Gigabit Ethernet use. These small, modular optical interface transceivers offer a convenient and cost effective solution for the adoption of Gigabit Ethernet in data center, campus, metropolitan area access and ring networks, and storage area networks. 
  
 Have a look at [Cisco's GBIC Range|http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps872/prod_models_home.html] 
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+In english:  
+There are two physical layers for running Gigabit Ethernet, you can run it over Cat5e (which is cheap), or you can run it over fiber (which can be a lot longer, is electrically inert, etc). However because fiber is so expensive, if you brought a switch with lots of fiber ports and wanted to use cat5e you'll end up shelling out a lot of money you don't need to. So instead Cisco made the ethernet physical layer a pluggable component called a "GBIC", so you can choose which type of fiber you want to put in any individual port. This idea was last seen as [AUI] when people were doing exactly the same thing, for the same reasons with 10mbit ethernet, except it was Coax/ThinNet/ThickNet.  
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 Also Look at [SFP]