SynOptics

SynOptics was a manufacturer of hubs, Ethernet over twisted -pair cable to the level of the later standards 10BASE- T lifted, so that the advance of Token Ring slowed, and sealed the withdrawal of coaxial cables from Local Area Networks.

The company, whose name stands for synoptic originated as a spin- Xerox, where Ethernet was originally invented as a bus for coaxial cable. The Xerox PARC engineer Ronald Schmidt was adjusted to allow Ethernet using optical fibers. He changed for this version of the topology of the star and finally integrated the IBM Cabling System of twisted-pair cables for Token Ring, to facilitate dissemination.

However, Xerox stuck to the announcement by AT & T, computer networks were worth only from 10,000 connections, and shied away from entering the market. AT & T created around the year 1984, the subsequent StarLAN what was Ethernet over twisted - pair cable with a star topology, but with a maximum of 1 Mbit / s at that time too slow. Xerox Schmidt pointed to the possibility of independence and let him go with the patents and the administrative staff Andrew Ludwick.

In June 1985, the two founded their own company, and brought towards the end of the first product on the market LattisNet: Ethernet hubs for fiber optic cables, the IBM Cabling System, and 10 Mbit / s In 1987 SynOptics extended the on the cable without shielding in Premises Distribution System by AT & T from. Each year, the market price of SynOptics increased by approximately 50%.

In the summer of 1994, SynOptics united with Wellfleet Communications to Bay Networks. Ethernet over introduced by SynOptics mixture of fiber optic cables and twisted pair cables with and without shielding remained state of the art.