Olicom A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark has made a spate of Token Ring announcements, headed by a new Token Ring Remote Multiport Bridge. As its name suggests, this is a source routing bridge, which supports Token Ring communications for up to four remote bridges over E1/T1 wide area links. The bridge uses an enhanced version of Olicom’s PowerMach software drivers, and is said to support a hardware-based data compression algorithm, giving a compression rate of up to 4:1 on standard text files. Olicom says the bridge can handle leased lines supporting speeds ranging from 9.6Kbps to 2.048Mbps on all four Wide Area links. According to the company, the product offers several options for network management, including IBM Corp LAN Network Manager and NetView, SNMP-based network management systems and Olicom’s own network management offerings. It also features out-of-band management, wide area network-link usage monitoring and remote updating of bridge software. It will ship this quarter for $6,500. The new versions of Olicom’s PowerMach software drivers, incorporated into the new bridge, are claimed to provide a 30% or better increase in performance over previous incarnations. According to Olicom, this has been achieved by better CPU and personal computer bus utilisation, lower latency and maximised receive and transmit rates for small and large-sized frames. The new drivers are said to work with all versions of Olicom 4Mbps and 16Mbps Token Ring adaptors, including AT, EISA, Micro Channel and PCMCIA. They operate in network environments including NetWare, IBM LAN Server, Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups and LAN Manager. The drivers will be shipping at no extra cost with Olicom AT, Micro Channel, EISA and PCMCIA Token Ring adaptors from June; drivers for the EISA 16/4 Server Adaptor will be available from July. The company has also announced a 20-port version of its Controlled Attachment Module, a combined Controlled Access Unit and a Lobe Attachment Module, for Token Ring networks. This follows the launch of a 10-port version late last year. Olicom says the latest edition is expandable with two additional Lobe Attachment Modules to suit installations with from 20 to 60 stations. The 20-port Controlled Attachment Module is $4,000, now.
