logoPdf

Publisher Arnoldo Mondadori – Mondadori’s Company Archive
Magazine…. Pc Week
Publication Date…. 06/23/1988
Publication Number…. 0023
Page Number…. 0014
Section…. CONNECTIVITY
Title…. BANYAN AND NOVELL FOLLOWING IBM’S TRAIL
Summary …. Two of the major players in the world of local personal computer networks have chosen IBM architecture for the interaction of Vines and NetWare operating systems with Os 2
Author…. Roberto Mazzoni
Topics …. Computer Industry
Type …. News
Subject…. Novell, Banyan System
Creation Date…. 11/15/1988


Caption: 

Os coprocessor applications for NetWare 2, while Os 2 structure for Vines

Description: 

Local networks and personal computers

Main Article Text

The world of local networks of personal computers is rapidly evolving following the same steps of the changes taking place in operating systems technology. After five years of unchallenged rule, Ms-Dos is about to give way to its successor Os 2. This inevitably will upset the current balance in the LAN market area and those who, like Novell and Banyan Systems managed to conquer large parts of the market, especially in the United States will eventually falter. IBM and Microsoft, last January, first released the version 1.0 of Os 2: an operating system that can handle up to 16 MByte of RAM and coordinate different applications running simultaneously on the same machine, as long as this machine is equipped with an Intel 80286 or 80386 microprocessor. Given the potential of this operating system it is inevitable that users will tend, even if gradually, to abandon the old system and switch to the new. This will force both Novell as well as Banyan Systems to make compatible their network operating systems (NetWare and Vines) with Os 2, realizing in a few months that which in the past years they had been able to do with Ms-Dos and NetBios (the standard software used so far in the Lan environment for personal computers). The time available to the two companies is relatively little, just a few months, but this seems to have pushed them to adopt virtually identical solutions. Let us recall that the first one was explicitly born as a network operating system for microcomputers and personal uses as in for At type or 386 as control platform hardware while the second is derived from Unix and requires the installation of a special network server built with for this purpose by Banyan Systems. IBM’s announcements regarding this area will help us understand the temporal evolution of this phenomenon and show us that the two competitors, Novell and Banyan, are forced against their will, to develop in a common way. In the next month, July, IBM will introduce the Os 2 Extended Edition (Xe) version 1.0, which will add to the basic functions of Os 2, the inherent capacity to manage the database (using the Database Manager module), and communications to the mainframe (thanks to Communication Manager). This second announcement represents, however, only an intermediate step, as was the rest of the’Os 2 version 1.0 presentation. We must wait for the availability of Os Xe 2 version 1.1, and its Lan Server Program (November 1988) so that IBM users can have access to all the functions that the Os 2 architecture can offer, including the interface user Presentation Manager and network management features (offered by Lan Server Program). In this scenario, the various players have five or six months to establish their positions. In particular, Novell and Banyan Systems, besides maintaining compatibility with IBM, will face attacks jointly launched by Microsoft and 3Com, who are doing extensive proselytizing to convert software houses and final users to the Lan Manager, the network software that was born as an appendix of Os 2. Microsoft and 3Com are promoting Lan Manager as a standard platform for the development of new network applications, playing on the fact that the same IBM has drawn from the technology of Lan Manager, for the development of its network operating system, the Lan Server Program. Who will win is a very controversial question; IBM perhaps will win once again in that, by setting a standard to be referred to, will allow others to become compatible, thus preventing the dominance of Microsoft rather than Novell. There’s room for everyone else as well as IBM, who is interested in only producing software for their own flagship networks (Token-ring and PcNetwork) leaving others to contend with the free market, where more disparate LAN types proliferate Ethernet, ArcNet, broadband, StarLan and so on.
Let us see what are the benchmarks set by IBM for the management of Os 2 network. To co-ordinate the interaction between the operating system running on the local workstation (Os 2 Xe) and the network software installed on the server (Lan Server Program), IBM has designed a software object called IBM Requestor that will be part of the Os 2 Xe 1.1. The function of this component is to establish a feature that establishes unification between the software environment inside the workstation and resources existing in the LAN. Microsoft will offer its own type of Requestor capable of communicating with the LAN Manager which will be different from IBM’s Requestor. Nothing prevents, therefore that others follow the same path, planning similar modules for interfacing with Os 2, with different network operating systems, which is exactly the path that was followed by Novell and Banyan Systems. In fact, the personal computer with the Os 2operating system will interact with the NetWare network software or with Virtual Networking System by means of a module called, respectively, NetWare Requestor and Vines Requester. Established applications already distributed demonstrate that it will be possible Os 2 and NetWare to exist on the same network rather than Os 2 and Vines, it remains to be seen whether Novell and Banyan will be able to provide equivalent performances to that promised by IBM and Microsoft 3Com. There is indeed this particular prerogative of Os 2 that has great weight for those who develop networking software: the ability to create communication paths between different programs through the so-called Interprocess communications (IPC). The Ipc functions of Os 2 allow one to develop programs that work in a cooperative manner all inside of a single machine that is shared over a local network. This means, for example that one can, separate the information management of a data base from the user interface, functions bringing the first to the network server and leaving the latter on the local station (As has been done, for example, with the Microsoft Sql Server, Ashton-Tate, Sybase). IBM and Microsoft have announced that the LAN Manager and LAN Server program can manage applications distributed in an Os 2environment. Novell and Banyan, not being able to be outdone, have each chosen a different approach.. Novell has decided to develop a card that allows for the simultaneous execution of Os 2 and NetWare on the same server. The product will be called Coprocessor Application NetWare and will include a microprocessor 80286 or 80386,intended to work in tandem with the processor on the motherboard of the server (another 80286 386). The main processor, having control over the input and output devices of the machine, will work under NetWare and will rule all network resources. However, any command that requires the use of Os 2 for its ability to be executed will be transferred to the coprocessor application (see the figure at the bottom the page). Banyan Systems also intends to use a coprocessor application, which, however, will be a personal computer of its own. In so doing, it will separate the network governing functions and file servers from those that execute the Os 2application. Of the two, the Novell solution seems at first glance, to be the more efficient since it does not require that all of the service traffic pass through that is necessary to keep the server and coprocessor synchronized.

Roberto Mazzoni