Technology Development
Madge Networks was once one of the world's leading suppliers of networking hardware. Headquartered in Wexham, England, Madge Networks developed Token Ring, Ethernet, ATM, ISDN, and other products providing extensive networking solutions. The company's products ranged from ISA/PCI network adapters for personal computers to work group switching hubs, routers, and ISDN backbone carriers. Madge focus was to provide convergence solutions in Ethernet, Token Ring, ISDN, and the then emerging ATM networking technologies. In addition to its Wexham headquarters, Madge operated main offices in Eatontown, New Jersey and San Jose, California, as well as offices in more than 25 countries throughout the world.
Founded in 1986, Madge Networks was a pioneer in the networking market, the emergence of which went on to define internal and external communications among corporations in every industry. Madge Networks was one of the world's leading proponents of Token Ring technology, producing ISA, PCI, and PC card adapters, switches, stacks, and other devices required for its implementation of Token Ring technology.
In the late 1990s Madge Networks had taken a leading role in developing the standards and first implementations of emerging High-Speed Token Ring (HSTR) technology. This newer protocol provided for a dramatic increase in data transmission bandwidth, while remaining compatible with first-generation Token Ring technology.
The sale of their Ethernet technology (LANNET) to Lucent Technologies in July 1998 reduced Madge Networks' presence in the Ethernet market, a rival networking technology to the Token Ring standard. The company tightened focus in the ATM market, emerging video conferencing technology and other ISDN carrier applications. Madge produced switching, routing and WAN-LAN interfacing equipment to facilitate both intracorporate and intercorporate video conferencing. In the ISDN market, the trend to use digital telephone lines to increase data, voice, and video transmission bandwidth, led Madge to develop a line of Edge Switching Nodes (ESNs) and other miscellaneous carrier equipment.
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