Despite the enormous sums IBM Corp has spent over the years on research and development – lending the lie to those that insist that the answer to all our problems is ever more investment, however mindless – it is having to buy most of its key communications products in OEM. The deals of a couple of years ago with the likes of Chipcom Corp and Network Equipment Technologies Inc have been followed by two new ones this week, one with Cascade Communications Corp, the other with Sync Research Inc.IBM has called in Cascade, Westford, Massachusetts to fill in all the gaps in its knowledge of Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode products. The two are forming a joint development organization to enhance their switching technologies, and Cascade will grant IBM manufacturing rights to its base and successor products as enhanced by the new organization. Cascade’s multi-service wide area network switches will be added today to IBM’s existing Nways multi-service product line, adding Switched Multimegabit Data Services and Integrated Services Digital Network capabilities. IBM also announced the addition of Asynchronous Mode switching and speech compression to the IBM 2220 Nways products, from June this year. And at the opposite end of the country, IBM found Sync Research in Irvine, California, and rushed to sign an OEM agreement for Sync’s FrameNode and other upcoming wide area network access products, and slapped the name 2218 Nways on the FrameNode. The product is designed as a release for users locked in to the proprietary Systems Network Architecture and thirsting for the open world of Frame Relay. The 2218 Nways offers multiprotocol support for SNA/SDLC, Bisync 3270, bisync/RJE, X25/QLLC, multipoint async, and other serial protocols, support for IP routing and IPX and Source Route/Transparent Bridging for SNA; dual NetView/390 and SNMP management agents and corresponding management applications.
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