Irvine, California-based Rainbow Technologies Inc, the leader in its market niche, has introduced a Unix dongle, the MicroSentinelUX, for developers to control distribution and use of their Unix software programs without interfering with the application. The device, based on an 8-bit Motorola Inc microcontroller, is claimed to work on any computer. It’s equipped with 32 bytes of non-volatile read-write memory for programming purposes. It can be field upgraded. Rainbow says it can serve as an alternative to Sun’s internal host ID. Rainbow acquired the piece in July when it bought Microphar SA in Paris and its US distributor ProTech Marketing Incwhich marketed a version of the dongle as its Micro Memory Key. It says that the MicroSentinel is a substantial upgrade of that product. Evaluation kits for the thing cost $75.
