Tag: 3Com

Categories
Cloud History

HP Hewlett-Packard – 1939 AD

Return to Timeline of the History of Computers or History

The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard or HP, (/ˈhjuːlɪt ˈpækərd/ HEW-lit PAK-ərd), was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components, as well as software and related services to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health and education sectors. The company was founded in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939, and initially produced a line of electronic test and measurement equipment. The HP Garage at 367 Addison Avenue is now designated an official California Historical Landmark, and is marked with a plaque calling it the “Birthplace of ‘Silicon Valley‘”.

HP is the third oldest IT company after IBM and Fujitsu.

The company got its first big contract in 1938, providing its test and measurement instruments for production of Walt Disney‘s hugely successful animated film Fantasia. This success led Hewlett and Packard to formally establish their Hewlett-Packard Company on January 1, 1939. The company grew into a multinational corporation widely respected for its products, and its management style and culture known as the HP Way, which was adopted by other businesses worldwide. HP was the world’s leading PC manufacturer from 2007 until the second quarter of 2013, when Lenovo moved ahead of HP.[1][2][3] HP specialized in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software and delivering services. Major product lines included personal computing devices, enterprise and industry standard servers, related storage devices, networking products, software and a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. HP directly marketed its products to households, small- to medium-sized businesses and enterprises as well as via online distribution, consumer-electronics and office-supply retailers, software partners and major technology vendors. HP also offered services and a consulting business for its products and partner products.

In 1999, Hewlett-Packard Company spun off its electronic and bio-analytical test and measurement instruments business as Agilent Technologies; HP retained focus on its later products, including computers and printers. It merged with Compaq in 2002, and acquired EDS in 2008, leading to combined revenues of $118.4 billion that year and a Fortune 500 ranking of 9 in 2009. In November 2009, HP announced its acquisition of 3Com,[4] with the deal closing on April 12, 2010.[5] On April 28, 2010, HP announced its buyout of Palm, Inc. for $1.2 billion.[6] On September 2, 2010, HP won its bidding war for 3PAR with a $33 a share offer ($2.07 billion), which Dell declined to match.[7]

On November 1, 2015, the company spun off its enterprise products and services business Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Hewlett-Packard retained the personal computer and printer businesses and was renamed HP Inc.[8]

Fair Use Sources:

B07XVF5RSP

Categories
Networking

Network Interface Controller / Card / Adapter (NIC)

Return to Timeline of the History of Computers

A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface,[3] and by similar terms) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.[4]

Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plugged into a computer bus. The low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard.

Modern network interface controllers offer advanced features such as interrupt and DMA interfaces to the host processors, support for multiple receive and transmit queues, partitioning into multiple logical interfaces, and on-controller network traffic processing such as the TCP offload engine

Fair Use Sources:

Categories
Hardware and Electronics History Networking

Ethernet Commercially Available Invented by Bob Metcalfe of 3Com – 1980 AD

Return to Timeline of the History of Computers

1980

Commercially Available Ethernet

Robert Metcalfe (b. 1946), David Boggs (b. 1950), Chuck Thacker (1943–2017), Butler Lampson (b. 1943)

“While working on his PhD thesis, Robert Metcalfe ran across a paper on the ALOHANET wireless computer network that had been developed at the University of Hawaii. Eager to find out more, he flew to Hawaii to learn from ALOHANET’s inventors.” (B07C2NQSPV)

“Whereas ALOHANET sent data packets through the air, Metcalfe’s design sent radio frequency energy through coaxial cables that had multiple taps, one for each computer, and a “terminator” at each end. Called Ethernet, after the nonexistent “ether” that many 19th-century scientists thought was the medium through which light propagated, the network proved to be a simple, cheap, and fast way to connect computers within a room or a building—a local area network (LAN).” (B07C2NQSPV)

“Although Metcalfe is sometimes called the inventor of the Ethernet, the actual patent was filed by Xerox, where Metcalfe worked during and after graduate school, with David Boggs, Chuck Thacker, and Butler Lampson listed as co-inventors. Metcalfe left Xerox in 1979 and formed 3Com, which worked with DEC, Intel, and Xerox to make Ethernet a computing-industry standard. The Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) adopted Ethernet as the IEEE 802.3 standard in June 1983.” (B07C2NQSPV)

“The Ethernet standard specifies both the physical connection between computers and the logical structure of the packets that the network carries. But Ethernet doesn’t specify the higher-level network protocols. As a result, DEC and Xerox invented their own network layers—DECNet and XNS (Xerox Network Systems). All of these proprietary networking technologies eventually lost out to Internet Protocol (IP) running over Ethernet.” (B07C2NQSPV)

“By the end of the 1980s, companies were introducing versions of Ethernet that could run over twisted-pair wiring instead of coaxial cable. Eventually standardized as 10Base-T, twisted pair dramatically reduced wiring costs and increased reliability, because each computer had its own wire that led back to an Ethernet “hub.” The original Ethernet ran at 10 megabits per second, but in 1995 so-called “fast Ethernet” running over twisted pair at speeds of 100 megabits per second was introduced, followed by a gigabit in 1999, and 10 gigabits per second (running over optical cables) in 2002.” (B07C2NQSPV)

SEE ALSO: First Wireless Network (1971)

Ethernet cables and network switches.

Fair Use Source: