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God gave us the light, and John Choffy is the DSL.
John Choffy, known as the "father of DSL," received the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his creation of the first Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modem in 1991. The technology made it possible to transfer large amounts of data, including video and images, over conventional telephone lines, significantly increasing the speed and quality of the Internet connection.
Choffy first saw a video phone – the so – called Picturephone-at the New York World's Fair in 1964, when he was 7 years old. He was disappointed with the poor image and audio quality, and has been dreaming of improving video calling technology ever since.
After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1978, Choffy began working at Bell Labs, where he developed the first echo-suppressed modem that allowed voice data to be transmitted over a single telephone channel at high speed. He also received his master's and PhD degrees from Stanford University, paid for by the company.
At Bell Labs, Choffey encountered misunderstandings and resistance to his ideas on how to increase the capacity of telephone lines. The company focused on developing fiber-optic networks, considering copper wires obsolete. Choffy was sure that it was possible to transmit video over copper lines, but they didn't listen to him.
In 1984, Choffy left Bell Labs and went to work at IBM, where he improved disk storage technology. In 1986, he became a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, where he and his students worked on the Discrete Multi-Tone Modulation (DMT) method needed to create DSL.
In 1991, Choffy took a leave of absence from university and founded Amati Communications Corp., which built the first DSL modem, the Amati Prelude. The modem could transmit data at speeds of up to 6 Mbps over more than 2.7 km of telephone line, which is enough for multiple digital TV streams.
In 1993, the Amati Prelude won the DSL competition organized by Bellcore, overtaking modems from AT&T, Broadcom, and Bellcore itself. It was a decisive victory for Choffy and his team, which proved the superiority of their technology.
DSL has become the foundation of high-speed Internet that has changed the lives of millions of people around the world. Choffy went on to study at Stanford and work for Amati, which went public in 1995 and was bought by Texas Instruments in 1998 for $440 million.
In 2003, Choffy founded another company, Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment (ASSIA), which focused on improving DSL performance. He sold part of the company in 2021, and the rest is still engaged in innovation and licensing in the field of broadband connectivity.
Choffy has also been an honorary member of the IEEE since 1976 and has received numerous awards for his work, including the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the Marconi Award, and permanent membership in the Internet Hall of Fame and Consumer Technology Hall of Fame. Chofi is still interested in training the next generation of communications engineers and teaches courses on digital communications at Stanford.
John Choffy, known as the "father of DSL," received the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his creation of the first Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modem in 1991. The technology made it possible to transfer large amounts of data, including video and images, over conventional telephone lines, significantly increasing the speed and quality of the Internet connection.
Choffy first saw a video phone – the so – called Picturephone-at the New York World's Fair in 1964, when he was 7 years old. He was disappointed with the poor image and audio quality, and has been dreaming of improving video calling technology ever since.
After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1978, Choffy began working at Bell Labs, where he developed the first echo-suppressed modem that allowed voice data to be transmitted over a single telephone channel at high speed. He also received his master's and PhD degrees from Stanford University, paid for by the company.
At Bell Labs, Choffey encountered misunderstandings and resistance to his ideas on how to increase the capacity of telephone lines. The company focused on developing fiber-optic networks, considering copper wires obsolete. Choffy was sure that it was possible to transmit video over copper lines, but they didn't listen to him.
In 1984, Choffy left Bell Labs and went to work at IBM, where he improved disk storage technology. In 1986, he became a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, where he and his students worked on the Discrete Multi-Tone Modulation (DMT) method needed to create DSL.
In 1991, Choffy took a leave of absence from university and founded Amati Communications Corp., which built the first DSL modem, the Amati Prelude. The modem could transmit data at speeds of up to 6 Mbps over more than 2.7 km of telephone line, which is enough for multiple digital TV streams.
In 1993, the Amati Prelude won the DSL competition organized by Bellcore, overtaking modems from AT&T, Broadcom, and Bellcore itself. It was a decisive victory for Choffy and his team, which proved the superiority of their technology.
DSL has become the foundation of high-speed Internet that has changed the lives of millions of people around the world. Choffy went on to study at Stanford and work for Amati, which went public in 1995 and was bought by Texas Instruments in 1998 for $440 million.
In 2003, Choffy founded another company, Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment (ASSIA), which focused on improving DSL performance. He sold part of the company in 2021, and the rest is still engaged in innovation and licensing in the field of broadband connectivity.
Choffy has also been an honorary member of the IEEE since 1976 and has received numerous awards for his work, including the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the Marconi Award, and permanent membership in the Internet Hall of Fame and Consumer Technology Hall of Fame. Chofi is still interested in training the next generation of communications engineers and teaches courses on digital communications at Stanford.
