Photos

In the garage, 1979
"Harry Saal checks one of the diskettes in Nestar's Cluster/One, while the microcomputers elsewhere in the corporate headquaters (Saal's garage) flash some of the Cluster's programs."  Published in the Palo Alto Times, which no longer exists, on January 25, 1979.

Employees, July 1980
Taken in front of the offices at 430 Sherman Avenue, Palo Alto CA.  Left to right: John Harris, Mary Kroenig, Colin Crook (of the Rank Organization, LTD), Nonie Sparks, Len Shustek, Harry Saal, Don Anderson, Kim Franzetti, Skip Stritter, Nick Fortis, Carol D'Esopo Saal, Jeff Levin. Missing: Chuck Bond, Susan Dieterich.

Headquarters, March 1981 to December 1985
The headquarters of Nestar Systems: 2585 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto CA.  As we expanded we leased a building across the street and dedicated it to manufacturing and marketing.  We also had offices in San Francisco, New York, and elsewhere.

Manufacturing, 1984
The assembly line for PLAN series file servers.

Employees, 1986
Taken in front of the new offices at 1345 Shorebird Road, Mountain View, CA 94043  Soon after this photo was taken Nestar was purchased by DSC Corporation, and in May 1986 founders Harry Saal and Len Shustek left the company to form Network General (now Network Associates).

Why Be Controlled By A Timesharing System? (page 1, page 2)
A flyer and ad promoting the Cluster/One in 1979, which used the Commodore PET as a disk server for PET, Apple ][, and Radio Shack TRS-80 personal computers, linked by an 80 Kbps network.  The models in the photo are Harry and Carol Saal and their children Jessica and Nathaniel.

Cluster/One in Japan
A flyer in Japanese (1979?) promoting the Cluster/One, with a good photo of the dual 8" floppy disk server.

Cluster/One Price List
Prices for the floppy-disk based Cluster/One server, and interfaces for the clients, called "Drones".  From September 1979.

Enjoy Local Networking - Now! (left side, right side)
An ad placed in computer magazines in 1980 and 1981 promoting the Cluster/One Model A.  It featured the Apple ][ as file and print servers, and a faster 240 Kpbs network.

Model A Price List
The Cluster/One Model A price list from February 1980, showing the 40% dealer discount on major components.

Local Networking with a Difference (page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6)
A glossy 6-page brochure produced in March 1981, touting the company's history and the "ethernet-like" Model A system.  The last two pages are technical specs.   The models in the cover photograph are employees.  Left to right (some are guesses): Mike Chase, Mary Ann Wee (or Janice Ishii?), Elaine Norton, Jana Thagard, Peter Hertan, Kent Foster, Carol D'Esopo Saal, Kim Franzetti, Leonard Shustek, Harry Saal.

Think Small, Fortune 500
A Wall Street Journal advertisement from Sept 3, 1980, promoting the use of networked personal computers in business.

Electronic Mail is Here
A flyer distributed at Comdex 1980 in Las Vegas, announcing the availability of "The Messenger" electronic mail system for the Cluster/One Model A.

Applications Now Available
A flyer (1981) announcing the support for DB Master (a product of DB Master Associates) as a supported database application in addition to The Messenger electronic mail system written by Nestar

Nestar's PLAN
Part of a brochure from 1983 describing the PLAN 4000 system for networking Apple ][, Apple ///, and IBM PC personal computers.  Nestar was trying to be "The First Source for Community Microcomputing'. The network was now Datapoint's ARCnet running at 2.5 Mps, and the level three and four protocols were the Xerox Ethernet XNS standards, with Nestar application protocols above that.  Shared facilities included File Servers, Print Servers, File Transfer Servers for WAN connectivity including transparent email, 3270 Emulation Servers for mainframe connectivity, Gateway servers for linking LANs, and Telex servers for TWX/Telex network access.  Some of the servers were hosted on custom 68000-based server hardware, and others were hosted on dedicated PCs.

Personal computer networks...from the pioneers
An advertisement that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on May 18,1984, touting the "Economies of Scale", the "Culture of Sharing", and the "Technical Superiority" of Nestar PLAN-series networking systems.  It offered an "Executive Briefing" brochure.

Most LANs Can't Pass This Simple Test
An advertisement that appeared in computer magazines in 1984, promoting the PLAN Series.  In addition to the PLAN 4000 (large) and PLAN 3000 (small) Nestar-manufactured server hardare that supported both IBM PCs and Apples, the PLAN 2000 was an IBM PC-only network using IBM PCs as servers.

The first personal computer network with bundled software
An advertisement that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on September 7, 1984, featuring the ready-to-use applications software ("PLANPak") which came with the PLAN series local area network.  The bundle included SuperCalc, SuperWriter, LAN:Datastore, ActionMail, and Quest Accountant.

Where Giants Fear To Tread
An advertisement that appeared in PC WEEK on Jan 22, 1985, showcasing Nestar's position as a leader in local area networking.  "NESTAR has installed more large local area networks in large institutions than any other manufacturer", it boasted, but it also warned that "Soon the giants will be involved in networking."  Unfortunately for Nestar, that was true.

Mirrored Hardware
An ad that appeared in PC Week, showcasing "The Shadow" fileserver that allowed clients to save data on two file servers simultaneously for high reliabilty system.

Cluster/One Model A (1980?) (page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4)
Cluster/One Model A (1981) (page 1, page 2)
PLAN 3000 (1984) (page 1, page 2)
PLAN 4000 (1982) (page 1, page 2)
PLAN 5000 (1985) (page 1, page 2)
PLAN IBM PC support (1982) (page 1, page 2)
PLAN email (page 1, page 2)
PLAN File Transfer Server (page 1, page 2)
PLAN Shadow File Server (1986) (page 1)
PLAN Network Operating System (page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4)
Many more scanned Nestar documents are here