Kodiak Technology Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of San Jose-based Seeq Technology Inc, has announced a series of Ethernet-based Novell NetWare interface boards for diskless workstations. The company, which by its name and that of its product, seems to be strongly influenced by Alaskan native American culture, offers the Raven-8 B/R for thick and thin wire Ethernets, while the Raven-8 UTP and the Raven-16 UTP are for 10Base-T networks. The boot ROM provides automatic communication between the Raven board and the file server enabling the user to log in, collect operating software and have access to data files. The Raven-8 B/R provides standard Ethernet physical layer interface via ThickNet or ThinNet. The Raven-8 UTP B/R and Raven-16 UTP B/R provide a physical layer interface that complies with the most recent draft of the 10Base-T standard. Kodiak claims that its diskless workstation is cheaper and more secure than adding a floppy drive to a node. It reckons the cost is halved and security is greater because access to data has to be made via the network. The boards are certified compatible with Emerald Computers and Wyse Techno-logy diskless workstations. Pricing of the boards in single units is $400 for Raven-8 B/R Thin/ThickNet, $500 for Raven-8 UTP B/R and $600 for Raven-16 UTP B/R for unshielded twisted pair.
