Warrendale, Pennsylvania-based Fore Systems Inc has decided to attack the desktop Asynchronous Transfer Mode market with the delivery of products for personal computers and Macintoshs. The company has added the EISA-200PC and the NBA-200 NuBus adaptor boards to its ForeRunner range of Asynchronous Mode adaptor boards. Both are available with multimode fibre at 100Mbps TAXI, Transparent Asynchronous Transceiver Interface, and 155Mbps OC-3c/STM-1 speeds and are shipping now; no prices were given. Fore says it will also add the PCI-200, a Programmable Communications Interface adaptor, to the range in the first quarter. Fore is also adding to the operating systems supported by its adaptor boards. Currently, the ESA-200 ships with drivers for Novell NetWare 3.12 and 4.01 for servers as well as Windows NT 3.1 and 3.5, Daytona. Drivers for Windows for Workgroups and OS/2 are promised for the second quarter 1995. NBA-200 adaptor boards with drivers for MacTCP 2.0 or greater and AppleTalk for System 7.1 or greater are due in the first quarter next year. On the local network emulation side, the company says that ForeThought LAN Emulation 0.4 is shipping with the new adaptors and provides transparent support for applications using NetWare, Windows NT, MacTCP and AppleTalk. Fore claims the next release, version 1.0, will provide the ability to have multiple distinct emulated local networks, and support for Request For Comment 1483 VC Multiplexing with Local Exchange Carrier identification, a Broadcast and Unknown server, and a LAN Emulation Server with Address Resolution Protocol service. Release 1.0 will ship in the first quarter 1995. The company also intends to provide category 5 unshielded twisted pair support on all its 200 series adaptor boards at 155Mbps speeds and across distances of up to 100m. The boards will use ATM Forum specified signalling and RJ-45 connectors, says Fore. The company adds that it will deliver a four-port network module with category 5 unshielded twisted pair interfaces for the ForeRunner ASX-200 Asynchronous Transfer Mode switch family. First shipments will be in the first quarter of next year. Finally, Fore says it will launch a stand-alone Windows NT version of ForeView next year.
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