San Antonio, Texas-based Performance Technology Inc, which specialises in peer-to-peer networking products, has formed a UK-based subsidiary company to spearhead a push into the European market. To be based in Bracknell, Berkshire, the new company intends to recruit a new tier of value-added resellers to complement its existing network of resellers for its product range. This includes the PowerLan peer-to-peer networking system, the company’s flagship product, of which version 2.30 has also been announced. Other products include the Powerfusion system for integrating personal computers running MS-DOS or Windows with Unix hosts, Powerfusion for Workgroups (which enables IBM Corp’s RS/6000s to be integrated into a workgroup), the PowerSave high speed tape back-up facility for Banyan Systems Inc, Novell Inc and PowerLan networks, and PowerBridge for linking two or more PowerLan networks together. Last year, there were protracted negotiations for Tucson, Arizona-based direct rival Artisoft Inc to take over Performance, which got as far as the two signing a letter of intent to that effect. However, according to Dave Ball – who was European Marketing Director for Artisoft at the time but has now switched camps to take up the same role at Performance – the deal fell through at the end of last year. He would not say precisely what it was that caused the parting of the ways. The company’s next step is to try and boost its profile in an established market dominated by big-name players. Ball believes that PowerLan is particularly suited to users that want the option of growing their networks and interlinking them across different systems, and that these facilities will be enough to distinguish it from its competitors. The product is being targeted at small to medium sized work groups, and operates over Ethernet, ARCnet and Token Ring topologies. The new version adds support for non-dedicated servers running under Windows 3.1 in Enhanced Mode at no additional cost, and NetBIOSes for OS/2. Utilities for file and resource management and remote screen access are integrated into the system, and the company is bundling the Office Logic electronic mail system from LAN Aces Inc with the new per-node licence, while with the unlimited peer-to-peer licence, an eight user version of Lotus Development Corp’s cc:Mail is included. The PowerLan two-user starter kit is priced from UKP138, and the single user add-on package is to cost from UKP69.
