Digital Communication Associates, Inc. (DCA), was a company in the computer and
telecommunications industry, located in
Alpharetta, Georgia, 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.
Later, Garry Betty (1957-2007) was CEO of DCA, until he left for
Earthlink in November 1996.
Together with
Intel, 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 images in CAS. DCA was in the market of producing
T-1 multiplexers.
In 1995, DCA
of Alpharetta, Georgia, was acquired by
Attachmate
Attachmate Corporation is a 1982-founded software company which focused on secure terminal emulation, legacy integration, and managed file transfer software. Citrix-compatibility and Attachment ''Reflection'' were enhanced/added offerings.
Hist ...
of Bellevue, Washington.
Acquisitions
In 1981, under the leadership of Bertil Nordin, DCA acquired Technical Analysis Corporation (TAC), the makers of the
IRMA Board which enabled PCs to function as
3270
The IBM 3270 is a family of block oriented display and printer computer terminals introduced by IBM in 1971
and normally used to communicate with IBM mainframes. The 3270 was the successor to the IBM 2260 display terminal. Due to the text ...
terminals to an
IBM mainframe
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...
host.
In September 1986, DCA bought
Cohesive Networks
Cohesion may refer to:
* Cohesion (chemistry), the intermolecular attraction between like-molecules
* Cohesion (computer science), a measure of how well the lines of source code within a module work together
* Cohesion (geology), the part of shear ...
.
In 1986, DCA acquired Microstuf, makers of the Crosstalk Communications package together with their flagship product, the
terminal emulation program
Crosstalk Mk.4
Crosstalk Mk.4 was a commercially available PC telecommunications and Terminal emulator, terminal emulation software suite, software package originally produced by Atlanta-based Crosstalk Communications, from the late 1980s through 1990, and by Di ...
.
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 emulator
A 3270 Emulator is a terminal emulator that duplicates the functions of an IBM 3270 mainframe computer terminal on a computer, usually a PC or similar microcomputer.
As the original 3270 series terminals were connected to the host computer th ...
s, 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