AT&T Co has decided to increase its efforts to link with IBM environments by enhancing the degree of support on its 3B2 mid-range Unix systems family for IBM’s Systems Network Architecture, adding support for IBM’s Token Ring and VTAM 3.2 program and bisynchronous communications support to its 80386-based 6386 WorkGroup Systems, reports Computer Systems News. VTAM 3.2 support will enable the 3B2 systems to participate in SNA sub-area networks as a Node Type 2.1 peer, while the new StarGroup Software SNA Gateway package enables AT&T’s 80386-based StarGroup servers to act as SNA gateways, supporting up to 128 simultaneous sessions to an SNA host, with emulation of up to five 3270 terminalprinter sessions. The software also includes Release 2.0 of SNA/Link, which provides a lower SNA protocol support for all SNA logical unit types on a single Node Type 2.1, and support for SNA functions such as 3270 and Remote Job Entry protocols, and includes programming interfaces for linking SNA programs and sessions to Unix computers; support also exists for the 4Mbps version of IBM’s Token Ring on the 6386 system and for 56Kbps line speeds – the result of all this, says AT&T, is that data can be exchanged via Logical Unit 6.2 while completely by-passing the IBM host. New releases of the LU6.2, 3270 and RJE software packages now run on 3B2 processors, while AT&T SNA/3270 Release 4.0 provides interactive communication between ASCII terminals and IBM hosts through SNA Synchronous Data Link Communications protocols. The new 6386 and 3B2 software will be available in the US from this month, with prices ranging from $200 to $5,000.
