Specifications

©
2002, David K. Z. Harris
19
Pg. 19
© 2002
David K. Z. Harris
Who are the vendors?
Ø Many players are still in the
game
² Cisco, Cyclades, Digi, Lantronix
Ø Some players have changed.
² Computone became Symbiat
² Xyplex became MRV…
• (nBase -> iTouch -> MRV)
² IOLAN became Perle
Ø The market is still growing!
Cisco has been taking remote access to consoles fairly seriously (Worldcom
was very fond of the 3600 family). Cyclades has been in this market for more
than a decade, and is a strong player. Digi and Lantronix are still doing well
these days.
Computone had been on the ropes in the Point of Sale market, but then they
decided to make terminal servers for that arena. This saved the company, but
they needed to evolve their product. The economy didn’t wait, and Symbiat
bought them. You can’t find terminal server hardware on the new web pages.
They are now out of the hardware business. The shame is that the new products
Computone was developing were coming out quickly, but not quickly enough.
They also had the BEST Users’s documentation I have seen to date.
Xyplex all but died, and was acquired by nBase, who didn’t evolve the product,
although MCI was very attached to this product family. iTouch
Communications took over the line, and continues to sell the older line, but
they have evolved new products to be Sun-safe, and expanded the line! They
will still support the older gear as well. MRV, the mother company of nBase
and iTouch is changing the logo and color, but features will remain the same.
The (Chase Research) IOLAN line was acquired by Perle, who also picked up
the Specialix line as well. You can still get the old IOLAN products, but the
newer Perle CS line is a very nice family.