As reported earlier this month, IBM Corp and Southborough, Massachusetts-based Chipcom Corp have got together to tackle the network hub market in a marketing and development alliance (CI No 1,969). While Chipcom is proud of the range of media it supports, the company acknowledges weaknesses in its router and bridging technology, a gap that it is hoping IBM will help to fill. As for IBM, a spokeswoman said that the co-developed product will be strategic – replacing any similar efforts that IBM had in the pipeline. The first fruits of the alliance will be based on the existing Chipcom Online chassis, according to Tim Podd, the company’s European regional director. The Online System features a trichannel architecture that can support a number of local area networks in the same box. The arrangement has been negotiated over the last nine months, but the mechanisms for joint development still have to be thrashed out and it is likely to entail exchange of some staff, Podd says. The most obvious way of integrating the Online chassis into IBM systems would be to develop a native NetView agent for the box, but Podd claims that IBM rejected the idea on the grounds that its new Unix-based version of NetView for the RS/6000 is perfectly adequate for use with Chipcom’s existing Simple Network Management Protocol agent – depending on how jaundiced you are, this can be taken either as an indication of just how strategic a product NetView/6000 is seen by IBM, or, alternatively, how peripheral networks are to its main line of business. One other intriguing aspect of the deal is that Chipcom’s other resellers will also be able to pass on the IBM technology. Among them is Digital Equipment Corp. In any multiple relationship there are potential conflicts says Podd, adding we have had discussions with DEC and they were very positive.
