BOS Ships e-Twin@x Controller
Four months after revealing plans to produce an updated version of its e-Twin@x Controller at the Spring COMMON tradeshow and conference in San Francisco, Better On-line Solutions (BOS) announces the product is now shipping.
Designed to provide a secure method for Twinax-attached PCs to run applications such as e-mail, Microsoft Networking and Lotus Notes on any BOS, IBM or IBM-compatible Twinax card connected to "virtually any" AS/400, the e-Twin@x Controller allows multiple dumb terminals and Twinax printers to coexist with Windows 95/98/NT PCs on the same network.
The e-Twin@x Controller enables any AS/400 running V3R2 or newer to provide an IP over Twinax connection for its users, according to sources at BOS, based in Israel but with U.S. offices in Scottsdale, Ariz. The e-Twin@x Controller is expected to help users whose PCs are attached to the AS/400 via Twinax emulation cards migrate to a TCP/IP network without the need to remove any existing investment in Twinax cabling. Use of the e-Twin@x Controller also adds TCP/IP over Twinax capability to BOS’s BOSaNova 5250 emulation software.
The new capabilities introduced with this latest version of e-Twin@x Controller is also expected to enable organizations to build 5250 Virtual Private Networks over the Internet, using modems attached to the Controller's built-in Remote Access Server (RAS), or via a fixed or leased line to a local Internet Service Provider (ISP).
"We expect to see rapid acceptance in the market for the e-Twin@x Controller," says Israel Gal, CEO of BOS. "Any organization which currently has an SNA-only [SDLC] connection from the AS/400 to its remote site and which spends in excess of $400 in long distance leased line costs per month, will realize immediate savings, thanks to this new functionality. Instead of dialing long distance to reach the host, the user simply dials a local ISP, which initiates the connection to the AS/400."
--L. Greenemeier