PERQ Systems Corporation — 2 prefixes (MA-L)

PERQ Systems Corporation holds two IEEE MA-L blocks, 00:1C:7C and 02:1C:7C, both registered to "PERQ SYSTEMS CORPORATION" at 2600 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15230, US. The company is the 1984 rename of Three Rivers Computer Corporation (3RCC), founded 1974 in Pittsburgh by six Carnegie Mellon University alumni, including AI researcher Raj Reddy. It built the PERQ, widely credited as the first commercially produced personal workstation with a graphical user interface — publicly launched August 1979 at SIGGRAPH Chicago, with its first customer order (June 1979) from the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. PERQ Systems partnered with the UK's ICL from 1981 to distribute the machine internationally, but ceased operations in 1986 amid competition from Sun Microsystems, Apollo Computer, and Silicon Graphics. Both PERQ 1 (optional Ethernet interface slot) and PERQ 2 (EIO/NIO Ethernet I/O boards) offered Ethernet connectivity, which plausibly maps to these two OUI blocks, though no PERQ-specific engineering document ties either prefix to a named board model. The hardware is vintage/collector-only today; there is no current vendor or product line.

IEEE assignment

00:1C:7C and 02:1C:7C → PERQ SYSTEMS CORPORATION, 2600 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15230, US [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry (rows 22134, 22307)

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI) × 2 assignments, same organization and address [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

MA-M / MA-S assignments

none found for this organization [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-M registry, the IEEE MA-S registry

Company identity

PERQ Systems Corporation = 1984 rename of Three Rivers Computer Corporation (3RCC), founded 1974 in Pittsburgh by six Carnegie Mellon University alumni including Raj Reddy [Confirmed — corroborated across independent sources] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Rivers_Computer_Corporation

Notable product

the PERQ, cited as the first commercially produced personal workstation with a GUI; launched Aug 1979 (SIGGRAPH Chicago), first order Jun 1979 (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK); UK distribution via ICL from 1981 [Confirmed] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ, https://history.siggraph.org/exhibitor/perq-systems-corp/, http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acd/sus/perq_history/part_1/c3.htm

Company status

defunct — ceased operations 1986 amid competition from Sun Microsystems, Apollo Computer, and Silicon Graphics [Confirmed] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ

Device type corroboration

PERQ 1 had an optional Ethernet-interface slot; PERQ 2 offered EIO/NIO Ethernet I/O boards (some configs with two Ethernet ports) — plausible mapping to the two registered prefixes, but no document names a specific board per prefix [Likely] — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PERQ

Registration date

Unknown/null. IEEE's public the IEEE MA-L registry publishes no date column (Registry, Assignment, Organization Name, Organization Address only), so no IEEE registration date exists to record for either prefix. Third-party site maclookup.app lists database-ingestion artifact dates for 00:1C:7C (e.g. "Nov 9 2000 Initial registration") that are impossible as IEEE facts given the company ceased operating in 1986 — these are explicitly NOT recorded as IEEE dates

[Confirmed null, sourced] — the IEEE MA-L registry, https://maclookup.app/macaddress/001c7c/history

Current relevance

no modern security relevance; hardware is vintage/collector-only (museum-piece status), no active vendor or product line [Likely] — https://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/perqt2/index.html