As briefly reported (CI No 1,249), Cambridge-based Torus Group has set up a new subsidiary, Torus Network Products, as a spin-off from its company Torus Systems Ltd which mainly sells networking software. Up to 40% of Torus Systems’ turnover was, however, derived from the sale of Ethernet Adaptors – a fact which led to the establishment of the new company as a subsidiary which will deal purely with hardware. Torus Network Products will take over the manufacture of the hardware and sell it as a discrete operation. It will, for example, supply Torus Systems with the standard and Micro Channel Architecture Ethernet buses that are sold with Torus software but it also has a mandate to sell its hardware independently to support all operating systems. Torus Network has already got 15 employees and is headed by Melvyn Risebrow, previously operations director with Torus, with James Ringrose, formerly marketing director at Torus, being given the task of setting the new company up. Ringrose has already signed up two hardware distributors for the company: the new MBS formed by the management buyout, and Ideal Hardware which sells components using a catalogue and telesales. A third UK distributor is currently being selected and distributors are also being sought for the continent and the US. Torus Network is also developing new products which it intends to sell OEM. In this sphere it is working with Compaq Computer to have an Extended Industry Standard Architecture Ethernet adaptor ready for release when Compaq launches the EISA bus. It is also working on a 16-bit card for the AT bus and a half card Ethernet adaptor for the 8-bit bus. Furthermore, the company believes that the standards for twisted pair will be approved by the IEEE in 1990 when it will offer a range of twisted pair components including adaptors, Ethernet to twisted pair connectors, and multiport repeaters. This full product set is already designed and built and will be launched at the beginning of 1990. A Token Ring card will be offered next year so that the company has a comprehensive hardware range, but the main growth is expected to come from selling twisted pair products to the US. All adaptors will be shipped with a complete set of network drivers supporting Lan Manager, NetBIOS, Novell’s NetWare 2.X and ELS as well as TCP/IP for Unix-based networks. Torus Network Products does not want to be stuck with a commodity product range and is working to build a reputation by identifying up-and-coming technologies and commercialising them. To this end it is interested in exploring the potential of Fibre Distributed Data Interface. The manufacturing of all these products will continue to be carried out in the UK. In its first year of operation the company expects to ship 30,000 network adaptors producing a turnover for 1990 of UKP3m.
