3COM Unibus ethernet controllers

[Sunny Kirsten]

From: sunny at sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: 3COM Unibus ethernet controllers
References: <195 at amd.UUCP>
Distribution: net

Greetings:

	3COM is indeed de-emphasizing the following markets/products:

UNET	Unix-Unix networking software (based on DARPA's IP TCP)

AE	8-bit parallel interface bus, AC-powered box, Ethernet controller

QE	DEC-Qbus Ethernet controller
UE	DEC-Unibus Ethernet controller
ME	Multibus Ethernet controller

The justification for this move is that with the advent of widespread
availability of VLSI Ethernet controllers, there won't be much profit
in the OEM Ethernet Controller (PC-Board) business, as everyone will
roll-their-own Ethernet controller integrated into their equipment.
On the other hand, they aren't in the business of turning dollars away
from their front-door, so if you wanted to buy quantities of boards...

Their main focus has shifted to support of mainstream Personal Computers
in the (office) networked environment (IBM PC (& lookalikes), HP150, ...)
and networking software/applications based on mainstream PC Operating 
Systems (MS-DOS, Xenix, ...).

And, of course they continue to excell at connectorized Ethernet 2.0 
transceivers, and their Cheapernet based on RG-58/AU and BNC connectors,
and low cost transceiver/controllers which plug into the mainstream PCs.
And I believe they are pursuing IEEE802.3 (in)compatibility issues.

Look for continued strong performance at the leading edge of low-cost
high-performance Personal Computer networking technology.  To the best
of my knowledge, all of the above has been previously published in various
trade rags.

-- 
{ucbvax|decvax|ihnp4}!sun!sunny(Sunny Kirsten of Sun Microsystems)


-- 
{ucbvax|decvax|ihnp4}!sun!sunny(Sunny Kirsten of Sun Microsystems)