3Station

    The archetypal diskless workstation,
   developed by Bob Metcalfe at 3Com and first available in
   1986/1987.

   The 3Station/2E had a 10 MHz 80286 processor, 1 MB of
   RAM (expandable to 5 MB), VGA compatible graphics with 256
   KB of video RAM, and integrated AUI/BNC network
   transceivers for LAN access.

   The product used a single printed-circuit board with four
   custom ASICs.  It had no floppy disk drive or hard disk,
   it was booted from a server and stored all end-user
   files there.

   3Com advertised "significant cost savings" due to the
   3Station's ease of installation and low maintenance (this
   would now be referred to under the banner of "TCO").

   The 3Station cost somewhere between an IBM PC clone and an
   IBM PC of the day.  It was not commercially successful.

   (2000-07-05)