Communication Machinery Corporation — 3 prefixes (MA-L)

A MAC address beginning with 00:CF:1C, 00:0B:16, or 02:CF:1C belongs to Communication Machinery Corporation (CMC), a Santa Barbara, California networking company active from the early 1980s through 2005. These prefixes are typically seen on legacy Ethernet controller cards and, later, on 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi test equipment — not on any current consumer or infrastructure device.

CMC was founded in the early 1980s by president and co-founder Larry Green. Its original business was intelligent Ethernet controller cards built around the DEC-designed, AMD/Mostek-fabricated LANCE chip, aimed at offloading LAN protocol processing from engineering workstations of that era. The company raised $4M in venture funding in June 1984, then missed sales and engineering projections tied to delayed LANCE chip shipments from AMD, prompting a 1985 management change and $600K in emergency financing.

CMC later pivoted from Ethernet controllers to purpose-built 802.11a/b/g WLAN test and measurement equipment, serving WLAN engineering, service-deployment, and equipment-manufacturer customers. Ixia (Calabasas, CA) acquired CMC on 2005-07-18 for an undisclosed price and used the acquisition to launch its IxWLAN wireless test product line; CMC has not operated independently since.

No CVEs, security advisories, or notable vulnerability history turned up for CMC's hardware in this pass — reported as Unknown/no-evidence rather than a confirmed clean record, consistent with a product line (vintage workstation NICs, then specialist lab test gear) that was never widely internet-exposed. IEEE's public OUI data carries no registration-date field, so no assignment date is attributed to these prefixes.

IEEE assignment

3 prefixes → Communication Machinery Corporation, registered Santa Barbara, CA, US [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI); 3 IEEE prefixes found (none in the IEEE MA-S registry/MA-M) [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

HQ / country

Santa Barbara, CA, US — 1226 Anacapa St (two prefixes) and 402 E. Gutierrez St (one prefix) [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L

Company status

acquired by Ixia (Calabasas, CA) on 2005-07-18 for an undisclosed price; folded into Ixia's IxWLAN line [Confirmed] — socaltech.com

Device types

legacy LANCE-based Ethernet NIC/controller cards for engineering workstations (1980s); 802.11a/b/g WLAN test/measurement equipment (2000s) [Confirmed] — historyofcomputercommunications.info, socaltech.com

Notable products

LANCE-chip Ethernet controllers; WLAN test tools that became the basis for Ixia's IxWLAN product line [Confirmed] — socaltech.com

Verified sample prefixes (all MA-L, Communication Machinery Corporation)

00:CF:1C, 00:0B:16, 02:CF:1C [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L / the IEEE MA-L registry

Registration date

none published — IEEE's public OUI data (Registry, Assignment, Organization Name, Organization Address only) carries no date field for any prefix [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry structure

Security note

no CVEs, advisories, or vulnerability reports found for CMC hardware in this light pass [Unknown] — absence of evidence, not evidence of absence

Related vendors

Ixia (acquirer, 2005-07-18; later Keysight-owned) [Confirmed] — socaltech.com

Analyst note

three independent OUI assignments plus two corroborating third-party sources (named leadership, funding history, named products, a named competitor, and a dated acquisition) place this well above a bare single-OUI shell — finalize as substantive, not a thin registration.