IBM Corp is preparing a networking splurge for the first half of this year. Watch out for a CICS client tailored to run over Novell Inc’s NetWare; a line of Asynchronous Transfer Mode local network adaptor boards, and switches; wireless local net adaptors, and improved bridging and routing. IBM’s 100Mbps Asynchronous Transfer boards for Micro Channel-based PS/2s and RS/6000s will cost around $3,000 apiece and ship late spring, to be followed by $1,200 25Mbps AT-bus variants in the summer. And 1995 should see the company produce a more expensive, 155Mbps board for machines equipped with the PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect bus. Communications Week reports, however that IBM is using third party ATM chip sets, rather than those under development in its own Zurich laboratories – once home-grown chips are incorporated, the adaptor’s prices are expected to fall. The magazine quotes Don Haile, general manager of IBM’s Networking Software Division as saying that the $1,200 model will cost about in 1995. On the other end of the wire, IBM’s wide area Transport Network Node Asynchronous Transfer Mode switch has reportedly gone into beta test at Advantis, the joint venture between IBM and Sears, Roebuck & Co and should ship sometime this spring. The company is also set to unveil the successor to the 8250 hub which it builds in collaboration with Chipcom Corp. The new chassis will accept modules from the existing box and will take new Asynchronous Transfer modules scheduled to ship later this year. The company is also planning an ATM attachment for its 3745 front-end processor. As for wireless networking, users can expect one local area network and two wide area network adaptors costing around $700 and $800 this quarter – the date has slipped from late last year. One of the adaptors will give access to the Ardis radio packet data network IBM owns jointly with Motorola Inc, while the other will support Cellular Digital Packet Data, the new 19.6Kbps cellular standard. NetView/6000 will be tweaked to managed them. Finally, on the hardware side, the company is planning to give the 8209 bridge a kick, doubling the number of ports supported to four or more and upgrading the engine to an 80486. At the same time the 6611 router will get improved, high speed APPN routing software. On the CICS over NetWare front, IBM has perhaps been less adventurous than expected – last March (CI No 2,139) the company outlined its vision for CICS with everything when it launched CICS Version 2 for OS/2, a full transaction processing system that would run on a personal computer. However the new CICS for NetWare, due for release in the first half, is merely a client shell which will enable personal computers to attach to CICS databases via NetWare for SAA.
