NASA / Boeing Contract
Protocom Devices, a company founded by Phacil’s CEO, developed the PAD Technology

In the mid 1980's NASA ran numerous applications on IBM SNA/SDLC, 3270 Bisync and 2780/3780 private line networks. The Boeing Corporation had successfully installed an X.25 based packet switched network for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The architecture was comprised of an X.25 based packet switching network at the core, with synchronous X.25 Packet Assembller/Disassemblers (PADs) at each mainframe and terminal cluster controller location to translate the proprietary mainframe protocols into X.25 for carriage across the packet backbone.

Project
Protocom Devices, a company founded by Phacil Co-Founder, Mr. Rafael Collado, developed the PAD technology. In addition, display terminal protocol conversion processors enabled conversations between incompatible terminals and hosts such as an IBM 3270 terminal accessing a Sperry host as a native Sperry Uniscope terminal. This capability enabled personnel in one agency to simultaneously access their own native applications as well as the applications run by other agencies, a capability unheard of at the time. NASA recognized the power of Boeing's architecture and solution and awarded a contract to Boeing to replace their IBM private line network with an X.25 based packet switch network.

Results
Protocom was a key supplier to Boeing who successfully deployed a packet network to interconnect NASA facilities around the globe.

Further Information
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