Chipcom was a company, early pioneering in the Ethernet hub

Ethernet hub

An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater hub or hub is a device for connecting multiple Ethernet devices together and making them act as a single network segment. A hub works at the physical layer of the OSI model. The device is a form of multiport repeater...

 industry. Their products allowed Local Networks to be aggregated in a single place instead of being distributed across the length of a single coaxial cable. They competed with now-gone companies such as Cabletron Systems

Cabletron Systems

Cabletron Systems was a major New Hampshire, USA-based provider of networking computer equipment throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Cabletron's design and sales methodologies dramatically reduced the cost of Ethernet networking equipment, covering a wide range of Layer 1 and Layer 2 networking...

, SynOptics

SynOptics

SynOptics Communications was a Santa Clara, California-based early computer network equipment vendor from 1985 until 1994, when it began a series of mergers....

, Ungermann-Bass

Ungermann-Bass

Ungermann-Bass, also known as UB and UB Networks, was a computer networking company in the 1980s to 1990s. Located in Santa Clara, California, in Silicon Valley, UB was the first large networking company independent of any computer manufacturer. UB was founded by Ralph Ungermann and Charlie Bass...

, David Systems, Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...

, and American Photonics

American Photonics

American Photonics, Inc. was a very early developer of LAN technologies based first in Brewster, NY, moving later to Brookfield Center, CT. American Photonics, Inc., also referred to as API, was founded in 1982 by James Walyus while he was employed by Exxon Optical Information Systems of...

, all of which were early entrants in the "LAN Hub" industry. Chipcom also was involved in Token Ring, FDDI, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...

 (ATM).

Eventually, LAN Hub technology was superseded by the modular network bridge, which is now known as the network switch

Network switch

A network switch or switching hub is a computer networking device that connects network segments.The term commonly refers to a multi-port network bridge that processes and routes data at the data link layer of the OSI model...

. By dividing Ethernet connections into bridged domains, Ethernet switches made traffic flow more quickly through the aggregation point, eliminating the need for Ethernet hubs. Although very small Ethernet hubs are still available, they are almost never used in Enterprise networks.

Some of the brand names of Chipcom products are: ORnet, ONline, ONdemand, ONsemble, and ONcore. These products range from media adapters to large enterprise-class multi-protocol hubs with high throughput switching fabric.

Many Chipcom employees, who were affectionately referred to as "Chippers", had an intense pride in the company and the work that they did. In 1995, Chipcom was acquired by 3Com

3Com

3Com was a pioneering digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network infrastructure products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney, Bruce Borden, and Greg Shaw...

. 3Com was acquired by HP in 2011.

Although many of the employees from Chipcom were retained, most eventually left. There is a Chipcom Alumni site.