CREN becomes P/370 OEM
Jim Conklin
The Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN) is
pleased to announce the availability of a new CREN developed system
facilitating Internet Resource Access (IRA). This new product is made
possible by an OEM agreement that CREN has entered into with IBM that
will provide CREN with IBM hardware (the Personal/370 (P/370) Adapter/A)
and a VM software platform upon which a major part of this new CREN
offering has been built. CREN has developed this product for the
research and educational communities in order to support VM based and
UNIX# based network access software, and to enable communication between
RSCS on IBM platforms and TCP/IP on open systems. One goal of this
effort is to provide a low cost internet in a box system supporting both
VM and UNIX# and providing support for the broad range of internet
resource access tools available for those systems. A second goal is to
insure a stable low cost NJE environment for the world-wide Bitnet
community.
The P/370 is a co-processor implemented on a card that adds standalone
S/370 functions to selected Micro Channel* PS/2* computers running OS/2*
and on IBM's RISC System/6000* running AIX*. CREN will package
components of IBM's VM operating system and software acquired or
developed by CREN for this card and the processor system to which it is
attached to create a low cost computer system with sufficient power to
support IRA.
The first CREN product release will support all of the functions
required to implement a Bitnet core node. Bitnet is a world-wide
network connecting more than 1000 research and educational institutions.
Princeton University staff have demonstrated that the P/370 running on a
suitable PS/2 has the capacity to support all of the NJE traffic flowing
through that Core node. This package will be demonstrated at the August
meeting of SHARE in Boston. Subsequent releases will support application
software running under VM on the P/370 and under AIX* on the RISC
System/6000* implementing the rich suite of general internet resource
access tools available under VM and UNIX#.
CREN is a non-profit organization based in Washington DC whose mission
is to advance the goals of institutions of higher education by
facilitating, catalyzing, and leveraging contributions from the world-
wide higher education community that help build a global computing and
communications infrastructure.
Information about this CREN product including pricing and availability
can be obtained by contacting CREN at 1112 Sixteenth St. NW, Suite 600,
Washington DC 20036, USA. Telephone 202-331-5360. E-mail: I...@cren.net
Kenneth M. King,
Executive Director, CREN
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* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business
Machines Corporation.
# Indicates a trademark of X/OPEN Co., Ltd.