As the use of computers in the workplace becomes more commonplace, the levels of interconnection and interoperability increases. The desire to pass large amounts of data almost instantaneously is the basis of the high speed local area network (LAN). To meet the needs of these LANs, the American National Standards Institute has developed the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standard. This new LAN can provides high speed fiber optic based communication between computers. In meeting the computer/LAN interface requirements, new methods for data transfer will be required. Trade-offs between the reliability, architecture and buffer sizes must be developed. These concepts must include variables of data transfer widths, protocol processing, transfer architecture and packet length distributions. This dissertation addresses these hardware requirements in using the high speed computer interface known as the Fiber Data Distributed Interface. / Ph. D.