IBM has had to offer a growing portfolio of Open Systems Interconnection products in Europe in order to avoid being shut out from a whole swathe of government business, and yesterday, the company headlined the US end of its major telecommunications announcement with its first three Open Systems products there, two of which are also new to Europe. The IBM Open Systems Message Exchange is an X400 program for exchanging electronic mail among users of different systems; the OSI/Communications Subsystem, enables IBM systems to communicate with other systems using comparable Open Systems protocols and to interconnect IBM Systems Application Architecture systems, applications, devices and networks; and IBM OSI/File Services is a licensed program supporting transfer and management of files between IBM and other Open Systems machines. IBM’s implementation of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is enhanced to enable users of IBM’s larger computers in academic and government organisations to exchange information with dissimilar computers and networks. There is a new release of the NetView network management program with major new automation capabilities; a new release of NetView/PC that adds network management of mixed vendor network devices, with enhanced memory capacity, and support for OS/2 Extended Edition; a new release of NetView Distribution Manager for automatic distribution of software and files to MS-DOS and PS/2 workstations, and distribution of microcode to 3174 controllers – the 3174 is the current 3270 controller; there is also an enhanced IBM SolutionPac NetView Automated Network Operations turnkey system to ease automation of network operation.
The IBM Transmission Network Manager is the first product out of IBM’s 1987 joint development and marketing agreement with Network Equipment Technologies Inc, providing a graphics capability from a central control point to manage high-speed digital networks, using a PS/2 for monitoring and controlling networks of Integrated Digital Network Exchange nodes from Network Equipment Tech. The new IBM 9270 Voice Response Unit automates telephone inquiry and data entry by enabling callers to use a telephone keypad as a computer terminal – not to be confused with the 9720 Business Communications System from Rolm, also known as Redwood: that digital phone system for small businesses and branch offices has been enhanced. A new AS/400 Telephony Application Services feature enables AS/400 users to combine computing with the speech processing capabilities of the IBM 9722 Redwood PABX. There is a new 7860 line of standalone and rack-mounted modems; the 7820 Terminal Adaptor for Integrated Services Digital Network, which enables customers to link various IBM devices to ISDN lines via a basic rate interface. The Series/1 mini is enhanced to strengthen its role as a programmable communications system, andIBM added new communications support services for its US users.
