The Ann Arbor, Michigan arm of Northern Telecom Ltd has announced a number of enhancements to its Meridian Lanstar Local Area Network transport system, including a Fibre Distributed Data Interface bridge, support options for Apple Macintosh networks, and Lanstar/100, a low-end system hub. The FDDI Bridge enables a series of Lanstar transport hubs to be linked through a 100Mbps fibre optic ring to provide communications and resource sharing between local networks spread over wide geographical areas. It supports the ANSI X3T9.5 protocol, enabling compliant products from other suppliers to co-exist on the same fibre ring. New support for Apple Macintosh networks includes a TCP/IP gateway, a Novell NetWare server interface card, and support for the Macintosh SE and Macintosh Plus, while Lanstar AppleTalk supports AppleTalk Phase Two. The TCP/IP gateway, Lanstar MacIP, runs on a Macintosh II workstation, routing TCP/IP packets between Macintosh networks on Meridian Lanstar and either an Ethernet or an AppleTalk personal network. Northern Telecom claims client software enables any Lanstar-attached Macintosh to run applications on a TCP/IP host with no loss of functionality in the Lanstar network. The Lanstar NetWare interface card provides communication between a Macintosh II workstation and a Novell NetWare v.2.15 server, and enables Macintosh II and IBM personal computer users to co-exist and exchange files on the same Novell network – NetWare and AppleShare servers can also co-exist on the same Local Area Network. The Lanstar MacSCSI interface unit enables Macintosh SE and Macintosh Plus workstations to be attached to a Lanstar AppleTalk network via the built-in SCSI port. Finally, Lanstar/100 is an entry-level local area network transport system which supports up to 32 users, while offering the same features and performance as the Meridian Lanstar models. Northern Telecom says the Lanstar/100 can be cost-effective for a minimum of eight users, and up to eight units can be stacked to provide support for a total of 256 users. The FDDI bridge will be available by the first quarter of 1990, with the MacIP in the next quarter – pricing is yet to be determined. The interface card is available now at $3,300, while the Macintosh SE and Lanstar MacSCSI, will be out by the end of the year at a $600.
