The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Apr. 25, 1995

Filed:

Jul. 02, 1992
Applicant:
Inventors:

Henry S Yang, Andover, MA (US);

Jerry D Hutchison, Littleton, MA (US);

Assignee:

Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
370 13 ; 370 14 ; 370 16 ; 370 853 ; 371 112 ;
Abstract

Method and apparatus for automatically switching an Ethernet station interface to choose between two protocols and, possibly, two external connector configurations, to adapt the station automatically to the correct one of two communication media types, such as the twisted-pair medium served by the 10BASE-T protocol, and other media types, served by the attachment unit interface (AUI). The invention continually tests for proper operation in the currently selected protocol, and switches to the other protocol upon failure of a test. If one of two available external connectors is used to connect the station to a network, the invention chooses between the connectors automatically, such that manual switching between them is not required.


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