SynOptics Communications, Inc., was a

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

-based early

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

equipment vendor from 1985 until 1994. SynOptics popularized the concept of the modular

Ethernet hub An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater hub, multiport repeater, or simply hub is a network hardware device for connecting multiple Ethernet devices together and making them act as a single network segment. It has multiple input/out ...

and high-speed Ethernet networking over copper twisted-pair and fiber optic cables.

History

SynOptics Communications was founded in 1985 by Andrew K. Ludwick and Ronald V. Schmidt, both of whom worked at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The most significant product that Synoptics produced was LattisNet (originally named AstraNet) in 1987. This meant that unshielded twisted-pair cabling already installed in office buildings could be re-utilized for computer networking instead of special

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner Electrical conductor, conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting Electromagnetic shielding, shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (Insulat ...

s. The

star network A star network is an implementation of a spoke–hub distribution paradigm in computer networks. In a star network, every host is connected to a central hub. In its simplest form, one central hub acts as a conduit to transmit messages. The ...

topology made the network much easier to manage and maintain. Together these two innovations directly led to the ubiquity of Ethernet networks. Before the final standard version of what is known today as the 10BASE-T protocol, there were several different methods and standards for running Ethernet over twisted-pair cabling at various speeds, such as StarLAN. LattisNet was similar to the final 10BASE-T protocol except that it had slightly different voltage and signal characteristics. Synoptics updated their product line to the 10BASE-T specification once it was published. Through the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, SynOptics produced a series of innovative products including early 10BASE-2 hubs, pre-standard (LattisNet), and

100BASE-TX In computer networking, Fast Ethernet physical layers carry traffic at the nominal rate of . The prior Ethernet speed was . Of the Fast Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-TX is by far the most common. Fast Ethernet was introduced in 1995 as t ...

products. The company was the market leader in Ethernet LAN hubs over rivals 3Com and

Cabletron Cabletron Systems, Inc., was a manufacturer of networking computer equipment throughout the 1980s and 1990s primarily based in Rochester, New Hampshire, in the United States. They also had manufacturing facilities in Ironton, Ohio, and in Irelan ...

. Despite intense competition that drove down prices, Synoptics' annual revenue grew to a high of $700 million in 1993. To move away from the rapidly commoditizing Layer 1/2 Ethernet equipment market and grow their market share in the increasingly lucrative and more profitable Layer 3 networking arena, SynOptics merged with Billerica, Massachusetts based Wellfleet Communications on July 6, 1994, in a

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

2.7 Billion dollar deal to form Bay Networks. SynOptics headquarters at the time of the merger with Wellfleet was in the pair of strikingly-designed sloped buildings at the Northeast corner of the intersection of California's Great America Parkway and Mission College Blvd in Santa Clara, an area known for featuring numerous networking start-ups such as Ungermann-Bass. These buildings are currently occupied by Palo Alto Networks. Bay Networks was acquired by Canadian company

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...

in June 1998 for $9.1 billion, forming Nortel Networks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Synoptics 1985 establishments in California 1994 disestablishments in California American companies established in 1985 American companies disestablished in 1994 Companies based in Santa Clara, California Computer companies established in 1985 Computer companies disestablished in 1994 Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct networking companies Manufacturing companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Nortel Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area

History

See also

References