Thomas-Conrad Corporation was an American computer networking hardware company active from 1985 to 1995 and based in Austin, Texas. From the late 1980s until its acquisition by Compaq in 1995, Thomas-Conrad was a market leader in the field of high-speed networking hardware. It produced hubs, routers, switches, NICs, and other products for networks based on Ethernet, Token Ring, and ARCNET.
History
Thomas-Conrad Corporation was founded by Walter Thomas Thirion and Scott Conrad Johnson in Austin, Texas, in 1985. Before founding the company, Johnson had practiced internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in the 1970s,[1] while Thirion had been pursuing a doctorate in nuclear physics. Both had met each other while working for a networking hardware company in the early 1980s. This company went bankrupt and liquidated in around 1984, prompting the duo to found Thomas-Conrad in 1985. The founders derived the name of the company from each of their middle names.[2]