CREN Announces IRA, for
Internet Resource Access
August 17, 1994
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 1150 18th Street, N.W., Suite 1030 Washington, D.C. 20036 , USA. Telephone 202-293-5909. E-mail: IRA@cren.net
Kenneth M. King,
Executive Director, CREN
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* Indicates a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
# Indicates a trademark of X/OPEN Co., Ltd. |
