IBM’s growing RS/6000 Unix family gets an Expansion Rack to keep its new toys in

The 7202 Expansion Rack for the RS/6000 provides mounting space and power distribution for the 9334 Model 010 Drawer Expansion Unit and the half inch nine-track tape drive drawer. The 7202 Expansion Rack attaches to the RS/6000 Powerserver 930, 950E, and 950 and provides input output expansion capability. The 7202 Model 900 Expansion Rack in conjunction with the 9334 Model 010 Drawer Expansion Unit extends the maximum disk storage capacity of the Powerserver 930, 950, and 950E systems from 11.9Gb to 22.2Gb provided enough Micro Channel slots are available in the system. The 7202 Expansion Rack is five foot high and contains space for up to six optional device drawers. It conforms to the 19 mounting dimension and universal spacing hole pattern in Electronic Industries Association standard. IBM says that other highlights include simplified storage and retrieval of large databases and a simplification of administration and improved systems management. Applications requiring more than one half inch Nine-Track Tape Drive Drawer can be supported by the configuration of one tape drive in the Powerserver rack and an additional Nine-Track Tape Drive Drawer may be configured in one of the 7202’s six drawers. The expansion rack will be available in the US on September 27.

RS/6000 Serial Optical Channel Converter

IBM, as expected, has enhanced deskside and rack-mounted RS/6000 Powerstations and Powerservers with support of a new Serial Optical Channel Converter. The Converter provides two ports, and each port can make a half-duplex optical link for communications by fibre optic cable with an external IBM Business Partner router, using standard AIX interfaces. Also, it provides data paths to system memory separate from the Micro Channel interface and supports TCP/IP through the AIX interfaces. The Converter provides serial optical connection to be used with the Serial Optical Channel, and software support device driver, usable by application programs, configuration support using the System Management Interface Tool and diagnostic support. It will be available from December 27.

AIX 3270 Host Connection Program/6000 Version 1 Release 2

The AIX 3270 Host Connection Program/6000 Version 1 Release 2 emulates a subset of the 3270 functions and features and enables Powerstation or Powerserver users to connect to a System/370 or System/390 host and appear to the host as an attached 3270 Display or Printer. AIX 3270 Host Connection Program/6000 1.2 provides SNA connection in a Type 2.1 Node attachment and Distributed Function Terminal SNA attachment to an 3274/3174 or 9370 Workstation Subsystem Controller. The SNA Node T2.1 operates over a wide area network, using RS/6000 supported modems and allows users at a remote location to access the services and facilities of an IBM System/370 or System/390 host. Also, the protocol supports Token-Ring networks which enables users to access the same services over a local area network. The coax distributed function terminal attach uses the 3274/3174 in both SNA and non-SNA mode and supports up to five sessions per 3270 Connection Adaptor. A single user can have up to 26 sessions running. The AIX 3270 Host Connection Program/6000 became available on March 22 in US.

AIX Personal Graphics Programming Interface/6000 Version 2.2.1

The AIX Personal Graphics Programming Interface/6000 Version 2.2.1 provides functional enhancements and maintenance updates to the application programming interface on the RS/6000. The functional enhancements of physical device emulation and structure drag are claimed to provide improved usability and increase user productivity. Version 2.2.1 supports the 7235 Powergraphics GTO supergraphics processor subsystem. Physical device emulation enables an application to replace or emulate a physical device, and the application may disable the physical device so it will not generate any input to the logical input devices which are connected to it. Structure drag enables a structure network to be move

d across the display screen by the tracking cross, and structure drag is supported on the 8-Bit and 24-Bit three dimensional Colour Graphics Processor and the RS/6000 Model 730 processor. Available March 29.

AIX Xstation Manager/6000 1.2

AIX Xstation Manager/6000 1.2 supports the IBM Xstation 120 and 130. The combination of AIX Xstation Manager/6000 1.2 and the Xstation enables the use of X client and graphics applications. Windows can be opened on the Xstation through applications running on hosts, either AIX or SAA and non-IBM, that support X Window System Version 11.3 or Version 11.4. New enhancements include support of more printers, plotters, modems and tablets; increased resolution on a 1,600 by 1,200 pixel monitor; video memory panning; font access from multiple hosts; user selection of initial log-in host; primary and secondary boot hosts; access to other networks via bridges and gateways; and System Management Interface Tool support for configuring of Xstations.

APL2/6000 for the RS/6000 under AIX

IBM describes APL2 as a productive language that is easy to learn and use. It provides a collection of functions and it is used in a diverse set of application areas such as commercial data processing, system design and prototyping, engineering and scientific computation, artificial intelligence, and the teaching of mathematics and other subjects. AIX APL2/6000 provides an environment for the development and execution of applications on the RS/6000. It is designed to be compatible with APL2 1.3, which runs on host mainframe processors, and with APL2 for the personal computer. IBM says the processing speed of the RS/6000 and the mathematical capabilities of the APL2 language combine to form a tool for doing rapid prototyping, and the APL2/6000 package includes many of the Auxiliary Processors and distributed workspaces found on the PC or host APL2 products, with the addition of an application interface to X Window. Out September.