Digital Communication Associates, Inc. (DCA), was a company in the computer and
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
industry, located in
Alpharetta, Georgia
Alpharetta is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and is a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 US Census, Alpharetta's population was 65,818 The population in 2010 was 57,551.
History
In the 1830s, the C ...
, United States.
Overview
Digital Communications Associates was founded by John Alderman, who led the company until 1981, when he was replaced by Bertil Nordin.
In February 1983, DCA went public, raising 24 million
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
.
Later, Garry Betty (1957-2007) was CEO of DCA, until he left for
Earthlink
EarthLink is an American Internet service provider.
It went public on NASDAQ in January 1997. Much of the company's growth was via acquisition; by 2000, ''The New York Times'' described Earthlink as the "second largest Internet service provider ...
in November 1996.
Together with
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
, DCA had designed the DCA/Intel Communicating Applications Specification (CAS). It defines a standard, high-level programming interface for data communications applications. The DCX format is the standard file format for storing
FAX
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
images in CAS. DCA was in the market of producing
T-1 multiplexers.
In 1995, DCA
of Alpharetta, Georgia, was acquired by
Attachmate of Bellevue, Washington.
Acquisitions
In 1981, under the leadership of Bertil Nordin, DCA acquired Technical Analysis Corporation (TAC), the makers of the
IRMA Board
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* Irma (name), a female given name
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* Irma, Lombardy, Italy, a ''comune''
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which enabled PCs to function as
3270 terminals to an
IBM mainframe host.
In September 1986, DCA bought
Cohesive Networks.
In 1986, DCA acquired Microstuf, makers of the Crosstalk Communications package together with their flagship product, the
terminal emulation
A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote termi ...
program
Crosstalk Mk.4.
In 1991, DCA acquired Cincinnati-based InterComputer Communications Corporation (ICC), makers of the INFOConnect line of terminal emulation and file-transfer products (focused on the Unisys ecosystem), OpenMind (collaboration) and RLN (remote lan node)
In 1992, DCA acquired Westborough-based
Avatar Technologies, makers of the Mac Mainframe hardware and software
3270 emulators, for $8 million.
References
{{US-telecom-company-stub
Companies based in Fulton County, Georgia
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
Networking hardware companies
Telecommunications equipment vendors