BusLogic

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BusLogic, Inc.
FormerlyBusTek, Inc. (1988–1992)
Company typePrivate[1]
IndustryComputer
Founded1988; 36 years ago (1988) in Santa Clara, California
Founders
  • Jesse Chen
  • Peter H. Harvey
DefunctJanuary 1996; 28 years ago (1996-01)
FateAcquired by Mylex Corporation
ProductsDevice controllers
Number of employees
140 (1995, peak)

BusLogic, Inc. (originally BusTek, Inc.), was an American computer company active from 1988 to 1996. It specialized in the production of Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) device controller chips and controller expansion cards, becoming a dominant player in that market, behind only Adaptec. In 1996, the company was acquired by Mylex Corporation.

History[edit]

Foundation (1988–1993)[edit]

FlashPoint LT, PCI-based SCSI host adapter by BusLogic from 1996

BusLogic was founded as BusTek, Inc., in Santa Clara, California, in 1988 by Jesse Chen and Peter H. Harvey.[2][3] Prior to founding BusTek, both Chen and Harvey had worked at Scientific Micro Systems (SMS), a Silicon Valley–based semiconductor fab that produced microprocessors and other integrated circuits. After leaving SMS, the duo founded BusTek with US$40,000 in start-up capital.[4]: 138 

Under BusTek, the first product that Chen and Harvey designed was a DMA controller for desktop computers.[4]: 138 [5] Initially developed independently, the controller soon gained the interest of NCR Corporation, who devised a contract with BusTek to manufacture and market the chip under their Microelectronics division.[4]: 138 [6] NCR introduced the controller in late 1989 as the 86C05. It supported multiple desktop bus technologies, including Micro Channel, NuBus, ISA, and EISA.[5] The 86C05 was ultimately co-designed between the two companies, with BusTek supplying the core design and BIOS, while NCR Microelectronics provided their own tweaks.[5][6]

In September 1990, BusTek delivered the first bus-mastering SCSI host adapter card for EISA machines, called the BT-742A, which incorporated BusTek's own 80C10 ASIC. A SCSI host adapter card with bus mastering was widely anticipated in the burgeoning EISA market, as it was one of the last steps in making EISA systems competitive in terms of both performance and flexibility against IBM's proprietary Micro Channel architecture, which had such SCSI cards since early 1989.[7][8] The BT-742A was a commercial success, BusTek earning $1 million in revenues by the end of 1990.[4]: 138  The company followed up with the BT-747S/BT-747D and BT-542S/BT-542D in 1991, based on their second-generation 80C20 ASIC. All four cards were based on the SCSI-2 standard; the BT-747 series comprise Fast SCSI adapter cards for the PC/AT and compatibles, while the BT-542D series comprise Wide SCSI adapter cards for EISA systems. The S and D suffixes denote single-ended and differential SCSI interfaces, respectively.[9][10] By the end of 1991, BusTek earned $10 million in revenue.[4]: 138 

In July 1992, BusTek acquired San Diego, California–based Chantal Systems—a developer of RAID management software—for an undisclosed sum.[11][12] Following the acquisition, BusTek changed their name to BusLogic, reflecting a broader focus on both software and hardware.[11] The eight remaining employees of Chantal were integrated into BusLogic; the former company had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy dissolution two months prior.[13][3] At the end of the year, BusLogic posted a doubled revenue of $20 million.[4]: 138 

The first products developed jointly between BusLogic and Chantal debuted in February 1993. They were a trio of product bundles comprising bus-mastering Fast SCSI host adapters supporting either the ISA, Micro Channel, or EISA buses, each bundled with Chantal's Paragon RAID configuration software.[14][15] BusLogic's Chantal software-based RAID products were widely used in hospitals, universities, and blue- and white-collar industries during the mid-1990s, handling loads of up to around 800 simultaneous users.[16]

In November 1993, the company announced their first SCSI RAID controller, comprising the DA-2788, DA-2988, and DA-4988. The foremost RAID controller connected to an EISA bus, while the latter two were BusLogic's first products for the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.[17][18]

Growth and acquisition (1993–1996)[edit]

By the end of 1993, and with Chantal under their wing, the company employed 95 workers and generated $15 million in sales for the year,[19] becoming a market leader in the SCSI adapter segment. Their largest competitors at this point were Adaptec and Future Domain.[20] BusLogic deviated from their SCSI roots with the release of the KT series of cache controller cards for IDE hard drives, introduced in January 1994.[21][22] This family consisted of the KT-510A, KT-910A, and the KT-410A, supporting ISA, PCI, and the VESA Local Bus (VLB) respectively; the lattermost was BusLogic's first product supporting VLB.[21]

In June 1994, BusLogic debuted their so-dubbed MultiMaster technology with a trio of bus-mastering Fast SCSI host adapters for ISA, VLB, and EISA. MultiMaster was BusLogic's name for their latest ASIC, which incorporated core logic common to all of the major desktop computer buses.[23] This integration significantly reduced the number of device drivers they had to distribute, as now the end user's operating system was the only consideration (rather than the bus architecture in tandem with the operating system).[23][24]

By late 1994, the company was the second-largest producer of SCSI silicon, behind Adaptec.[25] Their catalog comprised 25 products, while their headquarters office spanned 36,000 square feet, housing 130 workers, including 50 full-time engineers. In addition, they had multiple branch offices throughout the United States and abroad, including in Boston, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo.[4]: 139 

BusLogic found the going rough in the mid-1990s, after Adaptec had acquired several of BusLogic's smaller competitors including Future Domain and Trantor Systems.[26]: 91  Despite this, BusLogic generated annual sales of $24 million in 1995; employment peaked at 140 workers that year.[27] The company planned further expansion into Europe in 1994, with offices in Germany and the United Kingdom earmarked for opening in the following year.[25] BusLogic additionally planned to sell products based on Fibre Channel (a high-speed, lossless data transfer protocol widely used in storage area networks), joining the Fibre Channel Industry Association and designing peripherals based on the standard for release in 1996.[25][28]

Before they could release any Fiber Channel products, however, the company was acquired by Mylex Corporation, a maker of RAID controllers and LAN management software. The acquisition was announced in December 1995, BusLogic receiving stocks of Mylex valuated at roughly $55 million.[29] The acquisition was finalized in late January 1996, BusLogic's shareholders netting additional stock options post-acquisition, increasing the terms of the sale to over $67.9 million.[24][30] Mylex retained BusLogic's Santa Clara plant as a manufacturing facility for their RAID products.[31]

Post-acquisition (1996–present)[edit]

Following the sale of BusLogic to Mylex, co-founder Harvey founded Creative Design Solutions, a maker of network-attached storage servers and other local area network products.[2][32]

The acquisition of BusLogic was initially a success for Mylex, the company's revenue growing from about $100 million in mid-1995 to $173 million in mid-1996.[31] However, Mylex's stock dropped sharply in July 1996, after several of their largest customers either announced their own in-house RAID controllers or began making contracts with Adaptec, their largest rival. Following a long sales slump, in July 1997, Mylex announced layoffs within the company and disclosed the imminent shuttering of the old BusLogic plant.[33]

BusLogic's device drivers are still used by Oracle Corporation's VirtualBox as the sole means to emulate SCSI devices in a virtual machine, as of 2023.[34]: 35 [35]: 30 

References[edit]

  1. ^ Juliussen, Karen Petska; Egil Juliussen (1993). The 6th Annual Computer Industry Almanac. Vol. 6. Computer Industry Almanac, Inc. ISBN 9780942107036 – via the Internet Archive.
  2. ^ a b Ferelli, Mark (1998). "Focus on Personalities: Wo Overstreet". Computer Technology Review. West World Publications, Inc.: 58 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ a b Staff writer (July 7, 1992). "San Diego". The San Diego Union: E2 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Zhu, Lizhi (1994). 风云矽谷—华裔科技创业家群相 [Stormy Silicon Valley: A Portrait of Chinese-American Technology Entrepreneurs] (in Chinese). Taibei Xian Xindian Shi. pp. 138–139. ISBN 9579697817 – via the Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b c Staff writer (October 16, 1989). "NCR Host Interface Circuit Supports Multiple Buses". Electronic News. 35 (1780). Reed Business Information: 20 – via the Internet Archive.
  6. ^ a b Darrow, Barbara (January 1, 1990). "NCR Bus-Master Chip Supports MCA, EISA, AT, NuBus Protocols". InfoWorld. 12 (1). IDG Publications: 17 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Rosch, Winn L. (September 24, 1990). "Speedy BusTek BT-742A Links EISA PCs to SCSI Peripherals". PC Week. 7 (38). Ziff-Davis: 22 – via Gale.
  8. ^ Chartock, David S. (February 6, 1989). "EISA Specs Ready; Machines Due Late '89". Computer & Software News. 7 (6). Lebhar-Friedman: 4 – via Gale.
  9. ^ Staff writer (January 7, 1992). "Speedy SCSI". MIDRANGE Systems. 5 (1). 1105 Media: 51 – via Gale.
  10. ^ Campbell, Murray (October 23, 1991). "More bytes than blackjack: Las Vegas invaded by an army of thought machines". The Globe and Mail. Bell Globemedia Publishing: A1 – via ProQuest.
  11. ^ a b Staff writer (July 7, 1992). "In Other News". San Francisco Chronicle: C2 – via ProQuest.
  12. ^ Quinlan, Tom (July 6, 1992). "BusTek Now BusLogic, Buys Chantal". InfoWorld. 14 (27). IDG Publications: 39 – via Gale.
  13. ^ Sullivan, Kristina (July 6, 1992). "BusTek to Acquire Disk-Array Maker Chantal Systems". PC Week. 9 (27). Ziff-Davis: 139 – via Gale.
  14. ^ Fisher, Susan E. (February 22, 1993). "BusLogic Rolls Out First Chantal RAID Bundles". PC Week. 10 (7). Ziff-Davis: 78 – via Gale.
  15. ^ Staff writer (March 15, 1993). "BusLogic Bundles Disk Array". Digital News & Review. 10 (6). Reed Business Information: 28 – via Gale.
  16. ^ Ray, Garry (August 9, 1993). "BusLogic's Chantal offers inexpensive RAID capability with high performance, reliability". Computerworld. 27 (32). IDG Publications: 101–102 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ Nass, Richard (November 11, 1993). "Connect Disk Arrays to EISA or PCI Buses". Electronic Design. 41 (23). Endeavor Business Media: 152 – via Gale.
  18. ^ Fisher, Susan E. (December 6, 1993). "Server Vendors Ride PCI Bus". PC Week. 10 (48). Ziff-Davis: 73 – via Gale.
  19. ^ Corporate Technology Information Services (1994). The Hidden Job Market. Peterson's Guides. p. 24. ISBN 9781560793168 – via the Internet Archive.
  20. ^ Sullivan, Kristina B. (October 18, 1993). "Get set for the PCI invasion". PC Week. 10 (41). Ziff-Davis: 98 – via Gale.
  21. ^ a b Francis, Bob (January 31, 1994). "BusLogic speeds data transfer with IDE cache boards". InfoWorld. 16 (5). IDG Publications: 27 – via Google Books.
  22. ^ Schroeder, Erica (January 31, 1994). "BusLogic Controller Kit Soups Up Hard Drives". PC Week. 11 (4). Ziff-Davis: 30 – via Gale.
  23. ^ a b Francis, Bob (June 27, 1994). "BusLogic unveils line of SCSI host adapter cards". InfoWorld. 16 (26). IDG Publications: 46 – via Google Books.
  24. ^ a b Hachman, Mark (January 2, 1996). "BusLogic and Mylex Agree to Merger". Electronic Buyers' News. CMP Publications: 2 – via ProQuest.
  25. ^ a b c Staff writer (October 5, 1994). "BusLogic Sets Sights on Europe and Plans Three Offices Over There". Computer Business Review. New Statesman Media Group. Archived from the original on July 15, 2023.
  26. ^ Mohr, James (2000). Supporting Windows NT & Windows 2000 Workstation and Server. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0130830682 – via Google Books.
  27. ^ Corporate Technology Information Services (1996). The Hidden Job Market. Peterson's Guides. p. 31. ISBN 9781560793168 – via the Internet Archive.
  28. ^ Costlow, Terry (October 9, 1995). "Fiber Channel vendors gear up for Comdex assault". Electronic Engineering Times. CMP Publications: 10 – via ProQuest.
  29. ^ Staff writer (December 18, 1995). "Mylex to Buy Hardware Maker". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company: B6 – via ProQuest.
  30. ^ Staff writer (January 8, 1996). "Mylex Bids $67.9M for BusLogic". Electronic News. 41 (2098). Sage Publications: 40 – via Gale.
  31. ^ a b Hamblen, Matt (March 3, 1997). "Mylex looks for another rebound". Computerworld. 31 (9). IDG Publications: 109 – via Google Books.
  32. ^ McHale, Tom (July 28, 1997). "Startup contributes to wave of thin LAN server gear". Electronic Buyers' News (1068). UBM LLC: 30 – via Gale.
  33. ^ Robson, Douglas (August 1, 1997). "Mylex bets on new product to end slump". San Francisco Business Times. 11 (51). San Francisco Business Times: 5 – via Gale.
  34. ^ Portnoy, Matthew (2023). Virtualization Essentials. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781394181575 – via Google Books.
  35. ^ Kennedy, Randall C. (March 26, 2007). "Desktop Virtualizers Vie for Position". InfoWorld. 29 (13). IDG Publications: 28–35 – via Google Books.
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