NetWare Will Be Multilingual

 Description

Future diffusion of Os 2

Main Article Text

During a press meeting, held on 10 February in Milan, Novell has clarified its strategy regarding the future diffusion of Os 2, describing what specific products that will enable the mixed management of NetWare, DOS, and OS 2 on the local network. The Requestor, jointly developed with IBM, is a software product which, when loaded on a single work station, allows it to run Os 2 or Dos applications while building on the connection services offered by the new 2.1 version of the NetWare network operating system. The pair, NetWare Requestor, then allows one, right now, to create evolved departmental systems without waiting for the availability of Microsoft LAN Manager or IBM’s Lan Server Program, expected by the end of the year. Following the parallel the developments IBM’s local networks, with Novell’s Universal Network Architecture we see the evolution towards a multi-server concept and an application server. In fact, a short time span from the release of Os 2 Extended Edition, scheduled for August, Novell will begin distribution of its Applications Coprocessor, a card with a bus similar to Micro Channel, to be installed on the server, allowing the centralized management not only of discs but also applications. This solution is particularly appealing since it speeds up the processing of the shared data base, limiting to a minimum the exchange of data between workstations and servers. The module Btreeve, already integrated in the current version of NetWare, allows, as of now, it to be able to project dbms design on the network that is using the CPU server as a resource. On the same network, several dedicated servers can also exist able to handle disk management, the lines of communication and applications while the multiprocessor architecture of each server evolves further with the availability of NetWare 386, ready by the end of the year. Novell affirms, that the NetWare 386 will exploit the inherent capabilities of the Intel 80386 microprocessor, which will govern Gigabytes of RAM and terabytes of hard drives. Recall that Os 2 was designed for the 286 and may manage a capacity equivalent to that of Ram governed by the current version of NetWare 286 that is 16 Mbytes. Novell will retain full compatibility with standard NetBios net but will also open for Apple, Digital Unix, and VMS. More than their Ipx protocol, derived from Xerox XNS, the company will provide opportunities to converse with X.25, Lu 6.2, Tcp Ip., Smb-Bios, and Nfs (Sun). On the Italian front, meanwhile, 2400 NetWare nodes were installed in the last six months and about 650 dealers have been trained on the product; Fast Italy (Via Flaminia 888, 00191 Roma tel. 06 3202691 via Vela 2, 20133 Milan, tel. 02 200611), which Novell distributes with O.P.C. (Via Oxilia 27, 20127 Milan, tel. 2610148 02).

Roberto Mazzoni