Having seen its agreement to be acquired by Convergent Technologies fall apart, local network builder 3Com Corp, Santa Clara, California has found a much more modest partner in the shape of Centram Systems, Berkeley. 3Com has signed a letter of intent to acquire Centram, which developed the Tops networking program for Apple’s Macintosh. Introduced five months ago, Centram’s Tops is claimed to be the first true file server for Macintosh. It enables each computer on the network to share files, disks and peripherals with any other, and can translate between Mac-DOS, PC-DOS and Unix so that dissimilar computers can share files transparently and in real time. Privately-held Centram has 40 employees; the Tops installed base is put at over 15,000 workstations. The share-exchange agreement is expected to be completed before month-end.
