The Micro Channel Developers Association (MCDA) was a consortium of computer manufacturers that sought to consider and prioritize steps in the maturation of the

Micro Channel architecture Micro Channel architecture, or the Micro Channel bus, is a proprietary 16- or 32-bit parallel computer bus introduced by IBM in 1987 which was used on PS/2 and other computers until the mid-1990s. Its name is commonly abbreviated as "MCA", alt ...

, as well as to explore better approaches to disseminating technical information about Micro Channel to third parties. Micro Channel was a computer bus architecture introduced by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) with their

Personal System/2 The Personal System/2 or PS/2 is IBM's second generation of personal computers. Released in 1987, it officially replaced the IBM PC, XT, AT, and PC Convertible in IBM's lineup. Many of the PS/2's innovations, such as the 16550 UART (serial po ...

family of computers in 1987. Intended as the replacement to the ''de facto''

Industry Standard Architecture Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) is the 16-bit internal bus of IBM PC/AT and similar computers based on the Intel 80286 and its immediate successors during the 1980s. The bus was (largely) backward compatible with the 8-bit bus of the 80 ...

IBM pioneered with the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...

, Micro Channel was met with backlash over IBM's exuberant licensing costs, and several computer companies, most influentially

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

, formed a committee that developed the

Extended Industry Standard Architecture The Extended Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to EISA and frequently pronounced "eee-suh") is a bus standard for IBM PC compatible computers. It was announced in September 1988 by a consortium of PC clone ...

(EISA) in 1988. EISA saw popularity in workstations and desktop servers in the following years. While PS/2s also enjoyed modest success in those markets, Micro Channel was seldom licensed for official clones during its first years, leading to a perception of IBM among peripheral manufacturers as a domineering patent holder. The Micro Channel Developers Association was formed in October 1990 as a response to this perception and EISA's emergence. Membership in the MCDA carried an annual fee of $2,500. EISA manufacturers were not barred from entrance or invitation; spokespersons for MCDA contacted

, lead architect of EISA, to join their consortium, as they did to EISA co-founders

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been pa ...

and

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

. Out of the over 800 companies developing Micro Channel products (at least those assigned numerical vendor IDs by IBM, to be read by the IBM's BIOS for MCA machines), only 14 comprised the Micro Channel Developers Association on its formation. This included IBM,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

Chips and Technologies Chips and Technologies (C&T), founded in Milpitas, California in December 1984 by Gordon A. Campbell and Dado Banatao, was an early fabless semiconductor company. Its first product, announced September 1985, was a four chip EGA chipset that ...

NCR Corporation NCR Corporation, previously known as National Cash Register, is an American software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and electronic products. It manufactures self-service kiosks, point-of-sale termin ...

, Olivetti,

Apricot Computers Apricot Computers was a British company that produced desktop personal computers in the mid-1980s. Outline Apricot Computers was a British manufacturer of business personal computers, founded in 1965 as "Applied Computer Techniques" (ACT), late ...

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology products ...

Siemens Nixdorf Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme, AG (SNI) was formed in 1990 by the merger of Nixdorf Computer and the Data Information Services (DIS) division of Siemens. It functioned as a separate company within Siemens. It was the largest informatio ...

, AOX Inc.,

Reply Corporation Reply Corporation, often shortened to Reply Corp., was an American computer company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1988 by Steve Petracca, the company licensed the Micro Channel architecture from IBM for their own computers released ...

, Core International, Cumulus Corporation, and

National Software Testing Laboratories National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) was established by serial entrepreneur Joseph Segel in 1983 to test computer software. The company provides certification (such as WHQL and Microsoft Windows Mobile certification), quality assurance ...

. Olivetti and NEC later joined, in November that year. MCDA grew to 92 member companies by the first quarter of 1992. Even after IBM discontinued Micro Channel and the PS/2 in July 1995, the Micro Channel Developers Association still oversaw the development of hundreds of MCA cards and peripherals as late as May 1996, owing to its widespread use in IBM's line of

RS/6000 The RISC System/6000 (RS/6000) is a family of RISC-based Unix servers, workstations and supercomputers made by IBM in the 1990s. The RS/6000 family replaced the IBM RT PC computer platform in February 1990 and was the first computer line to s ...

servers and workstations. The consortium fizzled in 1997, however.

Member list

;March 1992

References

External links

* * {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970405101340/http://www.microchanneldepot.com/, date=April 5, 1997, title=Official website Technology consortia Organizations established in 1990 Organizations disestablished in 1997 IBM PS/2