After four months of deliberation, SynOptics Communications Corp appears to have modified its wait and see attitude to Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking, APPN, adopted after the demise of the APPI Forum of which it was a member. The Santa Clara, California-headquartered company has announced that IBM Corp’s Networking Hardware Division will develop and manufacture a 3174 communications controller module for SynOptics’ Lattis System 3000 intelligent hub system, in which APPN network node routing is included as standard. However, a spokesman for SynOptics denied that the APPN inclusion put the company squarely in the APPN camp, saying it was there as a by-product of OEMing the 3174. The company’s stance is that is still focussed on making its hubs SNA-compatible and enabling them to be managed via APPN, rather than providing a fully-fledged implementation as yet. SynOptics is not building APPN into its hub fibre, but putting 3174 capabilities into it, said a US company source. According to SynOptics, the module – which is essentially a communications device for Systems Network Architecture and TCP/IP-based Token Ring networks, providing communications and management of IBM 3270 devices – will enable enterprise networking customers to integrate their existing SNA equipment and applications with Token Ring intelligent hub-based local networks. The module, which is the first fruit of an OEM agreement between SynOptics and IBM, will occupy one slot in the System 3000 chassis. The module is due to begin shipping in the second quarter of next year, with a US list price of $12,000.
