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Encyclopedia > 3COM
3Com Corporation
Type Public NASDAQ: COMS
Founded 1979
Headquarters Marlborough, Massachusetts
Key people Edgar Masri, Pres. & CEO
Eric A. Benhamou, Chairman
Donald Halstead, III, CFO & Exec. VP
Industry Computer Networks
Products Network hardware
Revenue $794.80 million USD (2006)
Operating income $157.10 million USD (2006)
Net income $100.67 million USD (2006)
Employees 1,925
Website www.3com.com

3Com (NASDAQ: COMS) is a manufacturer best known for its computer network infrastructure products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe and is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The name 3Com comes from the company's focus on "Computers, Communication and Compatibility". Image File history File links 3Com_Logo. ... A public company is a company owned by the public rather than by a relatively few individuals. ... NASDAQ in Times Square, New York City. ... Marlborough is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... A computer network is a system for communication between computers. ... Revenue is a U.S. business term for the amount of money that a company earns from its activities in a given period, mostly from sales of products and/or services to customers. ... Image File history File links Green_Arrow_Up. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 3. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), also known as operating income and operating profit, is a term used to describe a companys earnings. ... Image File history File links Red_Arrow_Down. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 3. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Net income is equal to the income that a firm has after subtracting costs and expenses from the total revenue. ... Image File history File links Red_Arrow_Down. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 3. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... This page as shown in the AOL 9. ... NASDAQ in Times Square, New York City. ... Manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. ... A computer network is a system for communication between computers. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... Robert Metcalfe (born 1946 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American technology pioneer who invented Ethernet, founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfes Law. ... Marlborough is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... Official language(s) English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Area  Ranked 44th  - Total 10,555 sq mi (27,360 km²)  - Width 183 miles (295 km)  - Length 113 miles (182 km)  - % water 13. ...

Contents

History

Robert Metcalfe invented Ethernet at Xerox PARC, and subsequently co-founded 3Com in 1979. 3Com began making Ethernet adaptor cards for many early 1980s computer systems, including the LSI-11, IBM PC, and VAX-11. In the mid-1980s, 3Com would brand their Ethernet technology as EtherSeries, while introducing a range of software and PC-based equipment to provide shared services over a LAN using XNS protocols. These were protocols were branded EtherShare (for file sharing), EtherPrint (for printing), EtherMail (for email), and Ether-3270 (for IBM host emulation). Robert Metcalfe (born 1946 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American technology pioneer who invented Ethernet, founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfes Law. ... Ethernet is a large and diverse family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs). ... Bold text // Headline text Link title This article is about the computer research center. ... The PDP-11 was a 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corp. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... VAX is a 32-bit computing architecture that supports an orthogonal instruction set (machine language) and virtual addressing (i. ... Local area network scheme A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a local area, like a home, office, or group of buildings. ... Xerox network services (XNS) is a protocol stack which provided routing and packet delivery developed by Xerox at Xerox PARC in the later 1970s and early 1980s. ... Clemson Universitys Library Catalog The IBM 3270 is a class of terminals made by IBM (known as Display Devices) normally used to communicate with IBM mainframes. ...


The company's network software products included:

  • 3+Share file and printer sharing.
  • 3+Mail e-mail.
  • 3+Remote for routing XNS over a PC serial port.
  • NetConnect for routing XNS between Ethernets.
  • (MultiConnect?) was a chassis-based multi-port 10Base2 Ethernet repeater.
  • 3Server, a server-grade PC for running 3+ services.
  • 3Station, a diskless workstation.
  • 3+Open file and printer sharing (based on Microsoft's LAN Manager).
  • Etherterm terminal emulation.
  • Etherprobe LAN analysis software.
  • DynamicAccess software products for Ethernet load balancing, response time and RMON II distributed monitoring.

3Com's expansion beyond its original base of PC and thin Ethernet products began in 1987 when it merged with Bridge Communications. This provided a range of equipment based on Motorola 68000 processors and using XNS protocols compatibly with 3Com's Etherterm PC software. 3+Share was a pioneering file and print sharing product from 3Com. ... The 3Com 3Server was a headless dedicated network server machine designed to run 3Com LAN server software. ... The 3Station was a diskless workstation, developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com and first available in 1986. ... The LAN Manager was an advanced Network Operating System (NOS) from Microsoft developed in cooperation with 3COM. It is based on the Operating System/2 (OS/2) and NetBEUI protocol similar to its predecessors MS-NET for MS-DOS and Xenix-NET for MS-Xenix. ... Load balancing refers to the general practice of balancing a load. ... In telecommunication, response time is the time a system or functional unit takes to react to a given input. ... RMON stands for Remote Monitoring. ... Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is an American international communications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. ...

  • CS/1, CS/200 communication servers ("terminal servers")
  • Ethernet bridges and XNS routers
  • GS/1-X.25 X.25 gateway
  • CS/1-SNA SNA gateway
  • NCS/1 network control software running on a Sun2.

Acquisitions

3Com came close to being acquired by UNIX workstation company, Convergent Technologies, abandoning the pact just two days before a vote was scheduled in March 1986. Later, 3Com went on to acquire the following: Convergent Technologies was a company formed by a small group of people who left Intel Corporation in 1979. ...

They merged with U.S. Robotics in 1997, which made Dial-up access and included Palm, Inc. The modem business was rapidly shrinking. 3Com attempted to enter the DSL business, but was not successful. 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Centrum means center in Latin and several other European languages. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Chipcom was an early pioneer in the Ethernet Hub industry. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... OnStream Networks was a Santa Clara, California-based supplier of Circuit Emulation Service (CES) based Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) solutions. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Old Farts by the Sometimes-United Nations. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... U.S. Robotics (popularly nicknamed USR), based in Schaumburg, Illinois and founded in 1976, is a company that makes computer modems and related technologies. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Palm, Inc. ... A typical DSL Modem DSL or xDSL, is a family of technologies that provide digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. ...


In August 1998, Bruce Claflin was named COO. In March 2000, with stiff competition with Cisco, 3Com exited the high-end router business, upsetting its larger corporate customers. A Cisco ASM/2-32EM router deployed at CERN in 1987. ...


In the server Network interface card business, the more lucrative part of the NIC business, 3Com remained second in market share, after Intel. 3Com never managed to beat Intel with its own products or even with joint ventures with Broadcom. It started developing Gigabit Ethernet cards in-house but later scrapped the plans. Later, it formed a joint venture with Broadcom , where Broadcom would develop the main ASIC component and the NIC would be 3Com branded. The venture fell apart some time later and 3Com had no longer the talent to pursue Gigabit Ethernet on its own. A transitional network card with both BNC Thinnet (left) and Twisted pair (right) connectors. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Broadcom Corporation is a leading American supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications. ... Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet packets at a rate of a gigabit per second, as defined by the IEEE 802. ... Broadcom Corporation is a leading American supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications. ... An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is an integrated circuit (IC) customised for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use. ...


In July 2000, 3Com spun-off Palm as an independent company. After the IPO, 3Com still owned 80% of Palm but 3Com's market cap was smaller than Palm's. U.S. Robotics was also spun out again as a separate company at this time. Palm, Inc. ... An initial public offering (IPO) is the first sale of a corporations common shares to public investors. ... Market capitalization, often abbreviated to market cap, is a measurement of corporate size that refers to the current stock price times the number of outstanding shares. ...


In 1999 3Com acquired NBX, a Boston company with an Ethernet-based phone system for small and medium sized businesses. This product proved popular with 3Com's existing distribution channel and saw rapid growth and adoption. As one of the first companies to deliver a complete networked phone system, 3Com helped make VOIP into a safe and practical technology with wide adoption.


3Com tried to move into the smart consumer appliances business and on June 2000, 3Com acquired internet radio startup Kerbango for $80M. It developed its Audrey appliance, which made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It scrapped the Audrey and Kerbango products less than a year later. Photo of the 3Com Audrey. ... The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American nationally syndicated talk show, hosted and produced by Oprah Winfrey and is the highest rated talk show in television history. ...


In January 2001, Bruce Claflin became CEO. At this point, the company's main cash-cow, the Network interface card business, was also shrinking rapidly, mainly because the functionality was integrated into the southbridge chipset. The company started slashing or selling divisions and going through numerous phases of RIFs. The company went from employing more than 12,000 employees to less than 2,000. A transitional network card with both BNC Thinnet (left) and Twisted pair (right) connectors. ... The Southbridge is a chip that implements the ‘slower’ capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture. ... The term Reduction in Force is used by various corporate Human Resources departments as a synonym for downsizing. ...


In May 2003, the company left its Silicon Valley Santa Clara headquarters for Marlborough, Massachusetts. It also formed a venture with Huawei whereby 3Com will sell and rebrand products under the joint venture. A view of downtown San Jose, the self-proclaimed Capital of Silicon Valley. ... Official website: http://www. ... Marlborough is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... Logo Huawei Huawei Technologies Co. ...


In 2003, 3Com sold its CommWorks Corporation subsidiary to UTStarcom, Inc. The CommWorks subsidiary was based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, and developed wireline telecommunications and wireless infrastructure technologies. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... CommWorks Corporation was the subsidiary of 3Com Corporation based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois and sold to UTStarcom, Inc. ... UTStarcom is a Fortune 1000 company specialising in IP-based networking products. ... CommWorks Corporation was the subsidiary of 3Com Corporation based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois and sold to UTStarcom, Inc. ... Official language(s) English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... Telecommunication involves the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... Wireless is an old-fashioned term for a radio transceiver (a mixed receiver and transmitter device), referring to its use in wireless telegraphy early on, or for a radio receiver. ...


In January 2006, Bruce Claflin announced he will be leaving the company.


Note: As of February 2006, the Rolling Meadows and Santa Clara locations will be downsized and then eventually closed before the end of 2006.


Products

Local area network scheme A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a local area, like a home, office, or group of buildings. ... A wide area network or WAN is a computer network covering a wide geographical area, involving a vast array of computers. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A modem (from modulate and demodulate) is a device that modulates an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ... Network management, typically applied to large scale networks such as computer networks, telecommunication networks etc. ... Computer security is the current computer science collaboration of the week! Please help improve it to featured article standard. ... IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ... PBX redirects here. ... Computer telephony integration (CTI) is technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or co-ordinated. ... Copy of the original phone of Graham Bell at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris Telecommunication is the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ... The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. ...

See also

The 3Station was a diskless workstation, developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com and first available in 1986. ...

References

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL. The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC) is an online, searchable encyclopedic dictionary of computing subjects. ... GNU logo (similar in appearance to a gnu) The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free content, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU project. ...


External links

Business data

  Results from FactBites:
 
3Com SIP Center Principal Sponsor / Sponsors / Sponsors 3Com (753 words)
The 3ComĀ® VCX V7000 IP Telephony Solution is based on a system adopted by AT&T, MCI, China Unicom, and other telecommunications carriers that demand an extremely high level of reliability, scalability, and flexibility.
By leveraging the carrier-class system architecture that underlies the VCX platform, 3Com now offers a robust converged networking solution that is able to meet the voice requirements of even the largest enterprises-those with tens of thousands of users working at scores of sites.
3Com VCX systems are supported by a broad range of 3Com solutions, including end-to-end security, high performance routing, flexible and reliable core switching, and wireless networking to extend connectivity wherever it is needed.
The 3Com saga - Network World (1562 words)
3Com this week reported a net loss of $86 million in its last quarter, the result of a 21% decline in sales from the same quarter last year.
3Com this week is expected to announce a deal to resell security switches from Crossbeam Systems, a move that could offer users a multifunction security box at almost half the cost of competing security boxes, the companies say.
In 1999, 3Com was a profitable $5.8 billion company; last year it was a money-losing $932 million shadow of its former self.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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