3Leaf Networks — 00:16:A1 (MA-L)

3Leaf Networks is the registered name on IEEE MA-L block 00:16:A1, assigned to a Santa Clara, California address (3255-1 Scott Blvd). The name belongs to 3Leaf Systems, a venture-funded server-virtualization startup founded in June 2004 that traded and was listed on LinkedIn as "3Leaf Networks." Rather than a bare single-OUI shell, the company shipped real interconnect hardware: its "Dynamic Data Center" (Virtual Compute Environment) used a custom-designed ASIC placed on server motherboards to act as a distributed memory-coherence controller across an Ethernet or InfiniBand fabric, aggregating up to 16 nodes / 192 cores / 1 TB of memory into a single virtual SMP system. AMD licensed HyperTransport technology to 3Leaf, and 3Leaf also licensed Intel QuickPath Interconnect, giving its hardware credible standing as genuine networking silicon. The company raised roughly a $35M Series C and ceased operations (insolvency) in 2010. Its patents, IP, and staff were then acquired by Huawei for about $2 million — a transaction CFIUS forced Huawei to unwind in February 2011 after Huawei had not sought prior national-security review, making 3Leaf a well-documented case in US–China tech-acquisition history. No IEEE registration date exists for this OUI: IEEE publishes none, and the cached registry CSV carries no date column, so none is recorded here.

IEEE assignment

00:16:A1 → 3Leaf Networks, registered Santa Clara, CA, US [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry (IEEE MA-L)

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI); one block in the cached registry [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

Registered address

3255-1 Scott Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95054, US [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

MA-M / MA-S holdings

none found — no 3Leaf Networks entry in the MA-M (the IEEE MA-M registry) or MA-S (the IEEE MA-S registry) cached registries; holds only the single MA-L block [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-M registry, the IEEE MA-S registry

Company / brand

3Leaf Systems, doing business / listed as "3Leaf Networks"; Santa Clara, CA server-virtualization startup founded June 2004 [Confirmed] — LinkedIn company page; networkcomputing.com; infoworld.com; hpcwire.com

Product

"Dynamic Data Center" / Virtual Compute Environment — custom memory-coherence ASIC on server motherboards over an Ethernet/InfiniBand fabric; aggregates up to 16 nodes / 192 cores / 1 TB into a single virtual SMP [Confirmed] — hpcwire.com; datacenterdynamics.com

Interconnect licensing

AMD HyperTransport licensed to 3Leaf; 3Leaf also licensed Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) [Likely] — hpcwire.com, infoworld.com (single-lane trade-press reporting)

Funding / status

raised ~$35M Series C; ceased operations (insolvency) in 2010 [Likely] — datacenterdynamics.com, infoworld.com

Security / acquisition context

Huawei acquired 3Leaf's patents/IP/staff (~$2M, 2010); CFIUS reviewed the deal retroactively (Huawei had not sought approval) and recommended withdrawal Feb 11, 2011; Huawei complied Feb 18, 2011 [Confirmed] — Congress.gov CRS report; Lexology; Kelley Drye

Likely device context

if the OUI appears on hardware, most plausibly on the memory-coherence ASIC / interconnect NIC of the Dynamic Data Center rack nodes; no source ties the specific 00:16:A1 prefix to that ASIC by name [Likely] — inferred from product line

Registration date

none — IEEE publishes no OUI assignment date and the registry CSV has no date column; any "date registered" on third-party MAC-lookup sites is a database artifact, not an IEEE fact [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

Analyst note

3Leaf ceased operations in 2010, so live 00:16:A1 devices in the field are unlikely today; the entry documents a defunct-but-substantive interconnect-hardware vendor with a notable US–China acquisition-security footnote.