compata@cup.portal.com (Dave H Close) (05/30/89)
On 890510, I posted the following message to newsgroups comp.protocols.ibm and comp.sys.ibm.pc || Title: SNA 3274 emulation on PC || || I'm looking for a method, probably a combination of hardware and software, || to allow a _single_ PC to emulate an SNA 3274 controller with up to 32 || attached 3270-type displays. Note I said "emulate": I don't want to || actually attach 32 terminals, just have 32 active sessions concurrently. || || A short amount of research yielded several companies which allow almost || what I want -- IF you are running a network of PCs. Each PC on the net || emulates a single terminal, one of them acts as the 3274 concentrator. || This would be an acceptable solution if the vendor would publish the || terminal-PC to controller-PC interface so that I could do it all with only || one extra machine. So far I haven't found one. || || Can anyone suggest a company to check with? If you've actually used their || products, I'd also appreciate your personal comments on reliability, || functionality, value, etc. Thanks much in advance. Then on 890513, I posted the following message to newsgroup comp.unix.xenix || Title: UniPATH SNA-3270 || || I'm looking for anyone with experience using SCO's UniPATH SNA-3270 || product. Especially, either with a large number (~32) concurrent host || sessions, or with the programming interface. Please email any comments. || || I am considering using this product as a protocol converter between a || network of ASCII terminals and a host. For politial reasons, it is || necessary to keep the correspondence between the ASCII terminals and the || host sessions in sync. Therefore I need all 32 sessions. || || Note that I am not referring to a network of ASCII _PCs_, but ASCII || _terminals_. Therefore, none of the DOS-based LAN products are suitable || although several claim to support up to 32 sessions (one claims 64). If || they published programming interface specifications, maybe I could || reconsider. But as of now, it appears that UniPATH is the only available || choice. To date I have received 14 replies, including two telephone calls. Several people misunderstood my request and suggested LAN-based solutions. There are apparently several of these but they don't meet my needs. I MUST run the emulation in only one PC; I see only a composite data stream, I don't see any "real" terminals. It appears that there are three companies offering products which do meet my requirements. These are: product company phone SCO UniPATH SNA-3270 Santa Cruz Operation 800/626-8649 Rabbit-Plus 386 Rabbit Software 800/722-2482 DataTalker 3270 Winterhalter Inc 800/666-3270 All these products run under Unix (or Xenix). The Rabbit requires a 386, the others will run on 286s. Adding together all the components (software, synchronous interface board, programming interface), all are comparable in price for 32 concurrent sessions. The DataTalker also runs under DOS for several hundred dollars less. All products include many features which are of no value to me, such as file transfer, menu support, hot-key switch between sessions, printer support, etc. I haven't yet chosen a product for my use. In the replies I received, there was very little user experience with any of these, so its hard to judge. I'm now looking for user comments, starting with references supplied by the vendors themselves. Any further comments from the net will also be appreciated. Thanks to all those who replied. Dave Close Compata, 3131 Sieber Dr, Arlington, TX 76016 compata@cup.portal.com ...sun!portal!cup.portal.com!compata easylink 6295 5830 phone 214/277-6767