StrataCom
Encyclopedia
StrataCom, Inc. was founded in Cupertino, California, USA, in January 1986 by 26 former employees of the failing Packet Technologies, Inc. StrataCom produced the first commercial cell switch, also known as a fast-packet switch. Its product was the working proof of the technology which became known as Asynchronous Transfer Mode
or ATM. ATM became a key technology underlying the world's communications systems in the 1990s and 2000s.
pioneer Paul Baran
was an employee of Packet Technologies and provided a spark of invention at the initiation of the Integrated Packet Exchange (IPX) project. (StrataCom's IPX communication system is unrelated to Novell's IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange protocol.) The IPX was initially known as the PacketDAX, which was a play on words of Digital access and cross-connect system (or DACS). A rich collection of inventions were contained in the IPX, and many were provided by the other members of the development team. The names on the original three IPX patents are Paul Baran
, Charles Corbalis, Brian Holden, Jim Marggraff, Jon Masatsugu, David Owen, and Pete Stonebridge. StrataCom's implementation of ATM was pre-standard and used 24 byte cells instead of standards-based ATM's 53 byte cells. However, many of concepts and details found in the ATM set of standards were derived directly from StrataCom's technology including the use of CRC-based framing
on its links.
's Data communications Magazine
incluŒd the IPX in its list of "20 Most Significant Communications Products of the Last 20 Years" in a 1992 edition.
The Beta test of the IPX was in Michigan Bell
between Livonia
, Plymouth
, and Northville
, 3 suburb
s of Detroit. The first customer shipment was to the May Company
between department store
s in San Diego and Los Angeles
. The most significant early use of the IPX was as the backbone of the Covia/United Airlines
flight reservation system. It also was used in multiple corporate networks including those of CompuServe
, Intel and Hewlett-Packard
. The IPX's most successful use was as the first frame relay
networking product. It formed the core of the AT&T
and CompuServe
frame relay networks. The BPX, which was produced in 1993, increased the speed and sophistication of the frame relay offering. It also supported the 53 byte cells of the ATM standard instead the IPX's 24 byte cells. The original IPX product was also enhanced and re-introduced as the IGX.
The cards in the second wave were
The card in the third wave was
who later went to Packeteer
. Dick Moley, who came from ROLM
Corporation, served as its CEO for most of its existence. Dave Sant originally led sales, hiring Scott Kriens
who later became CEO of Juniper Networks
. Bill Stensrud was the founding Vice President of Marketing (and later became a managing partner of venture capital firm Enterprise Partners. The company was located in Cupertino
on Bubb Rd., Campbell
on Winchester near Hacienda, and San Jose
at Meridian and Parkmoor. The company also had a manufacturing building in south San Jose built for it in 1996; this building was selected in 2006 by Nanosolar
as the site of a large solar cell factory.
StrataCom went public in the fall of 1992 under the ticker symbol STRM. Three of its executives later formed SToRM Ventures.
acquired StrataCom in 1996 for US$4 billion
. The acquired employees formed the core of Cisco's Multi-Service Switching Business Unit and helped to move Cisco more into the carrier equipment space.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
or ATM. ATM became a key technology underlying the world's communications systems in the 1990s and 2000s.
Origins of the IPX at Packet Technologies
InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
pioneer Paul Baran
Paul Baran
Paul Baran was a Polish American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks.He invented packet switching techniques, and went on to start several companies and develop other technologies that are an essential part of the Internet and other modern digital...
was an employee of Packet Technologies and provided a spark of invention at the initiation of the Integrated Packet Exchange (IPX) project. (StrataCom's IPX communication system is unrelated to Novell's IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange protocol.) The IPX was initially known as the PacketDAX, which was a play on words of Digital access and cross-connect system (or DACS). A rich collection of inventions were contained in the IPX, and many were provided by the other members of the development team. The names on the original three IPX patents are Paul Baran
Paul Baran
Paul Baran was a Polish American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks.He invented packet switching techniques, and went on to start several companies and develop other technologies that are an essential part of the Internet and other modern digital...
, Charles Corbalis, Brian Holden, Jim Marggraff, Jon Masatsugu, David Owen, and Pete Stonebridge. StrataCom's implementation of ATM was pre-standard and used 24 byte cells instead of standards-based ATM's 53 byte cells. However, many of concepts and details found in the ATM set of standards were derived directly from StrataCom's technology including the use of CRC-based framing
CRC-based framing
The concept of CRC-based framing was developed by StrataCom, Inc. in order to improve the efficiency of a pre-standard Asynchronous Transfer Mode link protocol. This technology was ultimately used in the principal link protocols of ATM itself and was one of the most significant developments of...
on its links.
The IPX development
The IPX's first use was as a 4-1 voice compression system. It implemented Voice-Activity-Detection (VAD) and ADPCM which together gave 4-1 compression allowing 96 telephone calls to be fit into the space of 24. The IPX was also used as an enterprise voice-data networking system as well as a global enterprise networking system. McGraw-HillMcGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
's Data communications Magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
incluŒd the IPX in its list of "20 Most Significant Communications Products of the Last 20 Years" in a 1992 edition.
The Beta test of the IPX was in Michigan Bell
Michigan Bell
Michigan Bell is the subsidiary of AT&T serving the state of Michigan. Following the Bell System divestiture on January 8, 1982, the company became a subsidiary of Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company that served the midwestern United States...
between Livonia
Livonia, Michigan
Livonia is a city in the northwest part of Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Livonia is a very large suburb with an array of traditional neighborhoods connected to the metropolitan area by freeways. The population was 96,942 at the 2010 census, making it Michigan's 9th largest...
, Plymouth
Plymouth, Michigan
Plymouth is a city in Wayne County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,132 at the 2010 census. The City of Plymouth is an enclave completely surrounded by Plymouth Charter Township, Michigan.-Geography:...
, and Northville
Northville, Michigan
Northville is a city located in and divided by Oakland and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of Michigan and a suburb in Metro Detroit. The population was 5,970 at the 2010 census. The Oakland County portion is surrounded by the city of Novi. The Wayne County portion is surrounded by Northville...
, 3 suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s of Detroit. The first customer shipment was to the May Company
May Company
May Company may refer to several American businesses:*The May Department Stores Company, a defunct retail company acquired by Federated Department Stores in 2006**May Company California, a defunct California department store that merged with J. W...
between department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s in San Diego and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The most significant early use of the IPX was as the backbone of the Covia/United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
flight reservation system. It also was used in multiple corporate networks including those of CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
, Intel and Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
. The IPX's most successful use was as the first frame relay
Frame relay
Frame Relay is a standardized wide area network technology that specifies the physical and logical link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology...
networking product. It formed the core of the AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
and CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
frame relay networks. The BPX, which was produced in 1993, increased the speed and sophistication of the frame relay offering. It also supported the 53 byte cells of the ATM standard instead the IPX's 24 byte cells. The original IPX product was also enhanced and re-introduced as the IGX.
The IPX product
The cards in the original IPX system were:- The PCC - The Processor Control Card - a Motorola 68000Motorola 68000The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
based shelf control card - The VDP - The Voice Data Processor - Implemented a VADSpeech encodingSpeech coding is the application of data compression of digital audio signals containing speech. Speech coding uses speech-specific parameter estimation using audio signal processing techniques to model the speech signal, combined with generic data compression algorithms to represent the resulting...
algorithm and packetized the voice - The VCD - The Voice Compressor-Decompressor - Implemented ADPCMPulse-code modulationPulse-code modulation is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form for digital audio in computers and various Blu-ray, Compact Disc and DVD formats, as well as other uses such as digital telephone systems...
- The TXR - The Transmit Receive Card - Implemented a T1T-carrierIn telecommunications, T-carrier, sometimes abbreviated as T-CXR, is the generic designator for any of several digitally multiplexed telecommunications carrier systems originally developed by Bell Labs and used in North America, Japan, and South Korea....
interface with packet queues - The PIC - The Protection Interface Card - Allowed the T1T-carrierIn telecommunications, T-carrier, sometimes abbreviated as T-CXR, is the generic designator for any of several digitally multiplexed telecommunications carrier systems originally developed by Bell Labs and used in North America, Japan, and South Korea....
interfaces to be swapped
The cards in the second wave were
- The SDP - The Synchronous Data Processor - added V.35, RS-422EIA-422RS-422 is a technical standard that specifies electrical characteristics of a digital signalling circuit. Differential-mode signals can be sent at rates as high as 10 million bits per second, or may be sent on cables as long as 1200 metres. Some systems directly interconnect using RS 422 signals,...
, and RS-232RS-232In telecommunications, RS-232 is the traditional name for a series of standards for serial binary single-ended data and control signals connecting between a DTE and a DCE . It is commonly used in computer serial ports...
data to the IPX (this card was a very early use of XilinxXilinxXilinx, Inc. is a supplier of programmable logic devices. It is known for inventing the field programmable gate array and as the first semiconductor company with a fabless manufacturing model....
FPGAs & StrataCom was their largest customer for a time) - The CDP - The Circuit Data Processor - Added E1E-carrierIn digital telecommunications, where a single physical wire pair can be used to carry many simultaneous voice conversations by time-division multiplexing, worldwide standards have been created and deployed...
and integrated echo cancellation
The card in the third wave was
- The FRP - The Frame Relay Processor - Added Frame RelayFrame relayFrame Relay is a standardized wide area network technology that specifies the physical and logical link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology...
to the IPX (implemented the SARSegmentation and ReassemblySegmentation and Reassembly refers to the process used to fragment and reassemble variable length packets into fixed length cells so as to allow them to be transported across Asynchronous Transfer Mode networks or other cell based infrastructures. Since ATM's payload is only 48 bytes, nearly every...
function in Motorola 56000Motorola 56000The Motorola DSP56000 is a family of digital signal processor chips produced by Motorola Semiconductor starting in the 1980s and is still being produced in more advanced models in the 2000s. The 56k series was quite popular for a time in a number of computers, including the NeXT, Atari Falcon,...
DSP's)
StrataCom management and locations
StrataCom's first CEO was Steve CampbellSteve Campbell
Steve Campbell is an American college football head coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College....
who later went to Packeteer
Packeteer
Packeteer , founded in 1996 by Robert Packer and Brett Galloway, was an I.T. company based in Cupertino, California listed on the NASDAQ. Networking appliances focus on Application Traffic Management and optimization for wide area networks. They held at least 40 patents for various network...
. Dick Moley, who came from ROLM
ROLM
-Products:The company first produced rugged mil-spec computers which used Data General software. The company divisionalized in 1978 becoming Rolm Mil-Spec Computers and Rolm Telecom...
Corporation, served as its CEO for most of its existence. Dave Sant originally led sales, hiring Scott Kriens
Scott Kriens
Scott Kriens is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and former CEO of Juniper Networks.-Early life and education:Kriens did his bachelor's degree in economics from California State University, East Bay in Hayward, CA in 1979. As an undergraduate, Kriens used to fix cars to meet expenses. Now he...
who later became CEO of Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks is an information technology and computer networking products multinational company, founded in 1996. It is head quartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. The company designs and sells high-performance Internet Protocol network products and services...
. Bill Stensrud was the founding Vice President of Marketing (and later became a managing partner of venture capital firm Enterprise Partners. The company was located in Cupertino
Cupertino, California
Cupertino is an affluent suburban city in Santa Clara County, California in the U.S., directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census. Forbes...
on Bubb Rd., Campbell
Campbell, California
Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, a suburb of San Jose, and part of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 39,349...
on Winchester near Hacienda, and San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
at Meridian and Parkmoor. The company also had a manufacturing building in south San Jose built for it in 1996; this building was selected in 2006 by Nanosolar
Nanosolar
Nanosolar is a developer of solar power technology. Based in San Jose, CA, Nanosolar has developed and commercialized a low-cost printable solar cell manufacturing process. The company started selling panels mid-December 2007, and plans to sell them at around $1 per watt...
as the site of a large solar cell factory.
StrataCom went public in the fall of 1992 under the ticker symbol STRM. Three of its executives later formed SToRM Ventures.
Acquisition by Cisco Systems
Cisco SystemsCisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
acquired StrataCom in 1996 for US$4 billion
1000000000 (number)
1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....
. The acquired employees formed the core of Cisco's Multi-Service Switching Business Unit and helped to move Cisco more into the carrier equipment space.