TECHNOLOGY : IMC to Offer New Products to Smooth Network Data Flow

Specialized products for computer networks in the office have become a fast-growing market for Orange County manufacturers, partly because local area networks, called LANs, often have operational problems.

IMC Networks, a privately held company in Irvine, said this week that it will begin offering several new products to smooth the flow of information over LANs and clear up some of those problems.

LANs offer big gains in productivity by allowing employees to use common programs and databases at the same time. But workers can run into trouble sending messages and working off software programs installed on a poorly constructed LAN, often because different makes of computers are hooked to the same system.

IMC rolled out a $1,800 module that helps networks transmit data long distances, a $250 device that allows networks to use different types of cables and a $2,500 module that allows central computers to switch among processing tasks more easily.

Founded in 1988, IMC has grown to 40 employees with sales offices in Washington, Atlanta and Belgium. The company targets mid-size to large companies, said Jan Morrison, the company’s marketing director.

Also this week, RAD Network Devices, a Costa Mesa computer parts maker, introduced two palm-sized components that help control communications between a company’s home and branch offices by regulating the flow of data.

“People pay a lot of money to install their (network) lines, so making those lines as efficient as possible gets a lot of attention,” said Steven Wohl, a RAD Network regional sales manager.

RAD Network and RAD Datacom in Huntington Beach are divisions of the RAD Group, which is owned by two brothers in Tel Aviv. The brothers, Zohar Zissapel and Yehuda Zissapel, are directors of Lannet Inc. in Irvine.