StrataCom, Inc. was founded in Cupertino, CA in January 1986 by 26 former employees of the failing Packet Technologies, Inc. StrataCom produced the first commercial fast-packet or cell switch, called the Integrated Packet Exchange or IPX. Its product was the working proof of the technology which became known as Asynchronous Transfer Mode or ATM. ATM became a key technology underlying the world's communications systems in the 1990's and 2000's.

Internet pioneer Paul Baran was an employee of Packet Technologies and provided a spark of invention at the initiation of the IPX project. A rich collection of inventions were contained in the IPX, and many were provided by the other members of the development team. The names on the original three IPX patents are Paul Baran, Charles Corbalis, Brian Holden, Jim Marggraff, Jon Masatsugu, David Owen, and Pete Stonebridge. StrataCom's implementation of ATM was pre-standard and used 24 byte cells instead of standards-based ATM's 53 byte cells. However, many of concepts and details found in the ATM set of standards derived directly from StrataCom's technology including the use of CRC-Based Framing on its links.

The IPX's first use was as a 4-1 voice compression system. It implemented Voice-Activity-Detection (VAD) and ADPCM which together gave 4-1 compression allowing 96 telephone calls to be fit into the space of 24. The IPX was also used as an enterprise voice-data networking system as well as a global enterprise networking system. Data Communications Magazine include the IPX in its list of "20 Most Significant Communications Products of the Last 20 Years" in a 1992 edition.

The Beta test of the IPX was in Michigan Bell between Livonia, Plymouth, and Northville, 3 suburbs of Detroit. The first customer shipment was to the May Company between department stores in San Diego and Los Angeles. The most significant early use of the IPX was as the backbone of the Covia/United Airlines flight reservation system. It also was used in multiple corporate networks including those of Intel and Hewlett-Packard. The IPX's most successful use was as the first Frame relay networking product. It formed the core of AT&T's frame relay network. The BPX, which was produced in 1993, increased the speed and sophistication of the frame relay offering. It also supported the 53 byte cells of the ATM standard instead the IPX's 24 byte cells. The original IPX product was also enhanced and re-introduced as the IGX.

The cards in the orginal IPX system were:

• The PCC - The Processor Control Card - a 68000 based shelf control card
• The VDP - The Voice Data Processor - Implemented a VAD algorithm and packetized the voice
• The VCD - The Voice Compressor-Decompressor - Implemented ADPCM
• The TXR - The Transmit Receive Card - Implemented a T1 interface with packet queues
• The PIC - The Protection Interface Card - Allowed the T1 interfaces to be swapped

The cards in the second wave were

• The SDP - The Synchronous Data Processor - added data to the IPX
• The CDP - The Circuit Data Processor - Added E1 and integrated echo cancellation

The card in the third wave was

• The FRP - The Frame Relay Processor - Added Frame Relay to the IPX

StrataCom's first CEO was Steve Campbell who later went to Packeteer. Dick Moley, who came from Hewlett-Packard, served as its CEO for most of its existence. The company was located in Cupertino, Campbell, and San Jose, CA. StrataCom went public in the fall of 1992 under the ticker symbol STRM.

Cisco Systems acquired StrataCom in 1996 for $4 Billion. The acquired employees formed the core of Cisco's Multi-Service Strategic Business Unit.