Vancouver, British Columbia-based Unix facsimile pioneer Faximum Software Inc will announce an agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co this week at the Santa Cruz Forum that will have the pair jointly developing a true client-server facsimile software product for Unix workstations. Faximum is contributing its facsimile software expertise and existing server technology while Hewlett-Packard kicks in with human factors engineering and client-server technology. Each will market whatever results from the alliance independently. The product will be designed to use TCP/IP networks to connect clients running an X Window System-based Motif user interface to a facsimile server supporting one or more external facsimile modems. The client-server protocol has been developed by Faximum and is network- and host-independent, the company claims. It is said that this will enable facsimile clients and servers to be run on different architectures and under different versions of Unix and still work together. The product will support Hewlett-Packard’s PCL Printer Control Language and PostScript emulations as well as facsimile viewing under X Window. Special patented technology will be used to route incoming facsimile messages to the appropriate client workstation automatically. Faximum will convert the product for a number of systems including Santa Cruz Operation Inc’s Open Desktop desktop manager for Unix.
