IPX meaning in Information Technology ?

Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) is the network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol suite. IPX is derived from Xerox Network Systems' IDP. It may act as a transport layer protocol as well.

The IPX/SPX protocol suite was very popular through the late 1980s into the mid-1990s because it was used by the Novell NetWare network operating system. Because of Novell NetWare popularity, the IPX became a prominent internetworking protocol.

A big advantage of IPX was a small memory footprint of the IPX driver, which was vital for DOS and Windows up to the version Windows 95 because of limited size of the conventional memory. Another IPX advantage is an easy configuration of the client computers. However, IPX does not scale well for large networks such as the Internet, and as such, IPX usage decreased as the boom of the Internet made TCP/IP nearly universal. Computers and networks can run multiple network protocols, so almost all IPX sites will be running TCP/IP as well to allow Internet connectivity. It is also possible to run later Novell products without IPX, with the beginning of full support for both IPX and TCP/IP by NetWare version 5 in late 1998.