Centram Inc, the Berkeley, California company that developed the Tops local area network and related interconnection products, and has now agreed to be acquired by 3Com Inc (CI No 606) has an OEM arrangement with Unix software publisher Mt Xinu, under which Mt Xinu will market and support installations of Tops in the Unix environment. According to Centram, Berkeley Unix, despite its advantages, has often been limited to the academic community: it hopes that the ability of Mt Xinu, with its Xinet package, to offer all DEC VAX users, whether academic or business – the full functionality of Berkeley Unix, will expand Tops and Berkeley Unix use in commercial applications. Mt Xinu’s major product is an enhanced form of 4.3 BSD Unix, available in both source and binary form. Tops fits in with Mt Xinu’s Xinet package, which integrates Centram’s file server software and hardware with Kinetic’s K-Talk/Apple Talk protocols, multi-window terminal emulator and FastPath or Q-Bus. Mt Xinu specialises in providing support for DEC VAX computer users.
