The Lance Ethernet blocks on a simgle process and no other process may usethe device until the current process is done. The Midway can have upto 7processes receiving and eight processes sending data, since the channel 0 isreserved for OAM PDUs. (OAM PDUS are operational and management cells sentover the network.)

The Lance sends 10Mbs/s and has to leave space between transmissions for thedevice at the receiving end to be able to reset for a new receive. TheMidway has a traffic shaping algorithm that optimises the rate oftransmisssions over the line. Having 8 virtual channels increases the usageof lines. The through put of an ATM can be upto 600Mbs/s since transmiterrors are not monitored for retransmits. Also, unlike Ethernet, ATM doesnot require an acknowledgement of reception of data.