IBM used SAP AG’s user conference this week to release an ESCON- based adapter card for its range of Netfinity servers that it says will enable users to download R/3 application data much faster than before. ESCON is IBM’s protocol for transferring data from mainframes to storage devices. By putting the technology on an adapter card for servers, IBM said that customers can directly attach their Netfinity servers to their S/390 enterprise servers running SAP R/3. In this configuration, customers can use Netfinity servers as high performance SAP application co- processors to their mainframe systems, creating a three-tier client server environment. In the past, R/3 data would typically be downloaded over a standard ethernet network, which operates at 10 or 100Mbps, but the ESCON adapter will speed up transfer rates to 200Mbps, Thomas Schaffer, the program director of Netfinity Server Options told ComputerWire. He added that IBM will also introduce an adapter card for the next version of its mainframe protocol, FICON (fibre channel connectivity), which is currently being developed for the S/390 and is due to be introduced in the fourth quarter. Although the card was introduced during SAP’s user conference, the same benefits obviously apply to all data residing on an S/390, Schaffer added. The card costs $12,499.
