With fault tolerance becoming an increasingly pressing requirement in the local area networks on which so many companies now depend, Waltham, Massachusetts-based Chipcom Corp has come up with a new family of fault-tolerant systems designed to tackle the problem of network downtime. The ONline System Concentrator is described as a modular, multi-media channel system for all media types and multi-protocols, including support for up to three Ethernet, Token Ring or FDDI networks concurrently. The Concentrator claims to provide the ability to withstand multiple cable, equipment or human errors with no downtime – typically local area networks are down around 6% of the time they are required, according to Chipcom. It achieves fault-tolerance by providing redundancy for components such as power supplies and backbone cable links, and enables support for up to 128 unshielded twisted pair connections and 64 fibre connections. Fault tolerance is extended to the desktop with a fault tolerant fibre transceiver. Available from April, the Concentrator has a list price of $5,210, with a four port Fibre Module costing $2,110 and the Fiber Transceiver $1,170. The company says it is working on the development of next generation, multi-channel network management and control systems aimed at mission critical environments for terminals and workstations, incorporating SQL and X Window technology, due out in the third quarter of the year.
