IBM yesterday again disappointed those waiting impatiently for new mainframe disk drives by concentrating its Tuesday announcement on communications products, notably its entry into what is widely seen as a major new market area, intelligent network systems, albeit only for its own Rolm CBX exchanges. The company also announced new models of the 3745 communications processor and the 3174 terminal concentrator. IBM CallPath is a programming system that unites the voice and data communications worlds by integrating IBM System/370 CICS/MVS applications with Rolm 9750 Business Communications System features to add intelligent answering, co-ordinated voice and data transfer, consultation, transfer load balancing, and caller event data collection. It consists of CallPath 9750 and CallPath Host, and both ends are planned for US availability in December. The latter is $81,000 or $2,250 a month; no price for the former. On the 3174 front, as well as a trade in programme for 3270 and non IBM controller users, the company added new 3174s with twice as much floppy and main memory support, and optional enhanced programs for the thing. New models offer concurrent communication with multiple hosts either through a mutually connected Token-Ring network, or via the present primary host connection and new Concurrent Communications Adaptors. Remote 3174 gateways will have increased performance through support for the group poll capability. And for 3745 communications processor users, there are three new models, the 130, optimised to support host-to-host and Token-Ring gateway connections over high-speed lines; the Model 150 with up to 16 medium-speed lines, two Token Rings and a high-speed line, for use as a remote line concentrator; and the Model 170 provides local or remote attachment of up to 112 medium-speed lines and also supports high-speed lines, 4Mbps and 16 Mbps Token-Ring, and host channel attachment more cost-effectively. They start to arrive in August or September, with some Token Ring features following in December – at $20,000 for the 130, $29,500 the 150, $25,000 for the 170. The 210 and 410 now go up to 896 lines.
