station

n 1: a building equipped with special equipment and personnel for

a particular purpose; "he started looking for a gas

station"; "the train pulled into the station"

2: proper or designated social situation: "he overstepped his

place"; "the responsibilities of a man in his station";

"married above her station" [syn: {place}]

3: (Navy) the location to which a ship or fleet is assigned for

duty

4: the position where something or someone (as a guard or

sentry) stands or is assigned to stand: "a sentry station"

[syn: {post}]

v : assign to a station [syn: {post}, {base}, {send}, {place}]

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)