Cray Networks Ltd, formerly Dowty Network Systems, has announced a terminal server which it claims can integrate virtually all host environments in a single network, saving the cost of a gateway. The ScanNet servers are based around the Cobra RISC chip, designed specifically for local and wide area network equipment. Users can access TCP/IP, LAT and OSI-based hosts without using gateways – a world first, according to a spokeswoman for the company. Users can also connect any combination of asynchronous, IBM 3270 coax and IBM AS/400 5250/Twinax boards or terminals to the same box, in a development of the multiprotocol concept launched by the company last year. A terminal linked to the terminal server can establish up to five different sessions on one or more host systems. Also new are a family of RISC-based routers, the ScanNet Enterprise Router series, available both as stand-alone versions and as ScanNet System Centre modules. Communications protocols supported include SNA, TCP/IP, Open Systems Interconnection IS-IS, Novell IPX/SPX and DECnet, meaning that only a single router and single line are needed for many mixed-host environments. All ScanNet products can be monitored and configured from the graphical ScanNet Network Management Centre, and routers or terminal servers used as System Centre modules can also be monitored locally from the front panel.
