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XKL, LLC, is an American company that develops optical transport networking technologies. See Optical Transport Network. Founded in 1991 and based in
It was the first XKL product produced and it became available for purchase in late 1995. The TOAD-1 is a high-performance I/O oriented system with a 36-bit processor running
Login into the Living Computer Museum
a portal into the
Redmond, Washington
Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010.
Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America.
With an an ...
, XKL is led by Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...
co-founder Len Bosack
Leonard X. Bosack (born 1952) is a co-founder of Cisco Systems, an American-based multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking and communications technology, and services. His net worth is approximately $200 mi ...
.
History of XKL
In its earliest days XKL developed, and in 1995 introduced, the TOAD-1, a compact, modern replacement forPDP-10
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...
systems, mainframe computer systems that had gone out of production.
Products
Current Products
Products includetransponder
In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''.
In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...
, muxponder In optical fiber communications, a muxponder is the element that sends and receives the optical signal on a fiber in much the same way as a transponder except that the muxponder has the additional functionality of multiplexing
In telecommunic ...
, mux/demux ( multiplexing/demultiplexing) and (optical) amplifier models.
DarkStar DQT10 Transponder
Supports 12, 24 or 36 10G channels.DarkStar DQT100 Transponder
Aggregates up to 96 100G channels onto a single pair of fibers.DarkStar DQT400 Transponder
Aggregates up to 48 100G / 400G channelsDarkStar DQM100 Muxponder
Aggregates up to 12 100G channels via statistical multiplexing.DarkStar DQM10 Muxponder
Aggregates up to 36 10G channels.DarkStar DSM10-10 Muxponder
Aggregates up to 100G services.DarkStar DXM
First released in 2007, the Darkstar DXM is a high-performanceoptical switch An optical transistor, also known as an optical switch or a light valve, is a device that switches or amplifies optical signals. Light occurring on an optical transistor's input changes the intensity of light emitted from the transistor's output wh ...
first installed at the California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
as part of their Supercomputing Bandwidth Challenge. It provides 5 times the bandwidth
Bandwidth commonly refers to:
* Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range
* Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
, in excess of 100 Gigabits/sec, than the existing system but is also smaller and uses less power.
Historical Products
TOAD-1
The TOAD-1 System, also known as TD-1,The TOAD-1 was referred to as the TOAD as a development codename and then changed to the TD-1 as the original marketing name. It was then switched back to TOAD-1 before production began. was announced in 1993 and built as an extended version of theDECSYSTEM-20
The DECSYSTEM-20 was a 36-bit Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 mainframe computer running the TOPS-20 operating system (products introduced in 1977).
PDP-10 computers running the TOPS-10 operating system were labeled ''DECsystem-10'' as a ...
from Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president unt ...
. The original inspiration was to build a desktop version of the popular PDP-10
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...
and the name began as an acronym for "Ten On A Desk". It was eventually built at XKL by veteran engineers from Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
, DEC, Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
, and CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
.
It was the first XKL product produced and it became available for purchase in late 1995. The TOAD-1 is a high-performance I/O oriented system with a 36-bit processor running TOPS-20
The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is a proprietary OS used on some of DEC's 36-bit mainframe computers. The Hardware Reference Manual was described as for "DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20 Processor" (meaning the DEC PDP- ...
. It is a 36-bit multi-user system that can provide service to over 100 users at a time. The TOAD-1 architecture incorporates modern peripherals, and open bus architecture, expanded physical and virtual memory while maintaining the TOPS-20 user environment.
TOAD-2
The TOAD-2 was built to replace the TOAD-1. It is a single chip reimplementation used as redundant control processors in networking equipment from XKL. It can be configured forTOPS-20
The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is a proprietary OS used on some of DEC's 36-bit mainframe computers. The Hardware Reference Manual was described as for "DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20 Processor" (meaning the DEC PDP- ...
timesharing.
See also
Other companies that produced PDP-10 compatible computers: *Foonly
Foonly Inc. was an American computer company formed by Dave Poole in 1976, that produced a series of ''DEC PDP-10'' compatible mainframe computers, named ''Foonly F1'' to ''Foonly F5''.
The first and most famous Foonly machine, the ''F1'', was t ...
* Systems Concepts
Systems Concepts, Inc. (now the SC Group), was a company co-founded by Stewart Nelson and Mike Levitt focused on making hardware products related to the DEC PDP-10 series of computers. One of its major products was the SA-10, an interface whic ...
Notes
References
* * * *External links
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a portal into the
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which h ...
collection of timesharing and interactive computers, including an operational XKL TOAD-2
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American companies established in 1991