ITT Datacom, Compaq Computer Corp and the SK Group of Companies have announced a technology alliance intended to guarantee the interoperability of their products for use with 100Mbps Fibre Distributed Data Interchange. The agreement centres on ITT’s 155Mbps Structured Cabling System, servers and workstations from Compaq, and SK’s FDDI network adaptors and modular hubs, which are to be jointly marketed under the name Connexus. According to Harry Forbes, ITT Datacom’s director of European operations, problems with compatibility mean that customers are currently having to enter into extensive interoperability testing to ensure that network components from different companies can be used together: he cited excess cable jitter as an example of the problems which can occur, and the use of non-Intel based personal computers. The companies say that they have undertaken enough testing to be able to guarantee that their products can be used together without modification. Added to this, the companies add, there is a feeling of nervousness by users in upgrading to the faster 100Mbps speeds: through the alliance, they are hoping to reassure these users. Connexus is to be marketed by ITT Datacom through its existing channels.
