The Hub and Spoke!

" Does the name Robert Madge mean anything to you? It probably rings a bell, if a distant one. Madge was the founder of Madge Networks , which in the late ‘90s was the market leader in Token Ring networking technology. The once high-flying company has since met the same fate as that of Token Ring itself: near oblivion. The story of the collapse of Madge Networks is a remarkable one, especially when you hear it directly from Madge himself. That's what happened over breakfast earlier this week when I met up with Madge at the 16 th World Congress on Information Technology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Madge, who since leaving his namesake company in 2001 has won acclaim in the field of RFID and tracking technology, was completely open with me about the downfall" The above podcast of Computerworld's Tennant is about the fall of Madge.

Madge LANNET LET36 MULTINET II Chassis. I spend some time with this chassis in various locations. It was better and more stable than the Visage that followed!

The blue one says "To commemorate the visit of Her Majesty The Queen to Madge Networks 18th November 1994". She presented an export award to Madge.

The Economist, dated December 1995, "Madgical mystery tour" The International edition of Business Week April 1995 "Entrepreneurs - Can they thrive in Europe" Robert Madge is on the cover. The London Sunday Times "Britain's Richest 500 1994" Robert Madge was 55th that year.

Stewart Marshall emailed me these Madge photos from his archive.

Over at Denver, the IEEE finally closed the book on 802.5, a.k.a. token-ring. The standards have been withdrawn. Token-ring is well and truly dead. However, over at the Thinking problem management blog , there is a section dedicated to token-ring memories . If you have any Madge or token-ring memories and pictures email them to me at ronaldxbartels at platform934.biz and I'll post them. Here is an example: The Madge Networks CAU and LAM launch in the US!

Supplied by the famous Mister Stubbs !

The original engineering team at Madge Networks: Bruce Tanner, Mark Richer, Martin Lea, Robert Madge and Rob Stubbs.

My mate Dave Ruby emailed me the above picture of the launch in the United States of the Madge CAU and LAM. The CAU and LAM operated as a token-ring hub. Dave is the guy in the middle becoming better acquainted with the cow. The Madge CAU was a solid bit of kit that rarely went titsup , and compared to the IBM CAU 8230, it was the bull's bollocks. When it came to IBM , we never turned the udder cheek! Eventually, Madge went titsup and IBM ratted out to Cisco .

Today I had a cup of coffee with Duncan of 7Daystech . We had a chat about Vontu and then took I a picture above of the plaque of the Madge Africa opening.

Many people emailed me to ask what is Robert Madge doing these days... Robert Madge is the President of IDtrack (the European Association for Secure Identification), a non-profit organisation based in Barcelona, Spain, which provides information, guidance and coordination for the secure implementation of radio-frequency identification ( RFID ) and other techniques of automatic identification. Mr. Madge is also the founder of Xifrat Daten AG, of Zug in Switzerland, which develops software technology for large scale database implementations, and which produces solutions for process flow and for data-intensive product tracking and tracing applications (arising from the use of RFID and other data gathering technologies). In addition, Mr. Madge is the founder and International Director of FoodReg AG, which provides automated record-keeping and controls for the food industry and which is a pioneer in food traceability solutions and computerised food safety programmes. Furthermore he is

The Madge Token-ring adapter, 16/4 BM2, the legend! Best network adapter ever shipped to market!

The Madge AT Plus - damn, I had to search long and hard for this picture. Kate Godfrey: "Myself and my ex Madge colleagues at Nortel have decided that the best adapater was the AT+ (I was voted down on the FDDI card) and the worst was the Smart16........ so we don't concurr with the link :-) BTW: Whatever happened to Mr. R. Madge,,,,,,,, that should be on your blog."

Go Karting in Spain. On holiday in Ireland. Golf. Argus Cycle Tour Mexico. Spain.

This is guaranteed to bring a tear to Simon's eye as he still can't bear the thought of putting his old token-ring equipment in the skip. Many moons ago through the Cape Town and Atlanta airports and at both locations I noticed token-ring networks. Please click on the comments field below this blog and tell me where else you have see token-ring still refusing to die. While searching for a CD, I discovered a CD copy of my old Thinkpad with some video clips on it. So I created a YouTube account and uploaded them! I hope these memories will delight all the members of the old Madge. To view the HSTR seminar presentations click here and here . Robert Madge on support without limits. Madge Communications. Madge Plant Tour. HSTR Launch - Mike Wilson HSTR launch - Jeff King and Simon Gawne . HSTR LAB demo with Mike Cohen. Sharon Wilber on HSTR alliance. Jeff King doing a HSTR demo.