volker@pac.uucp (Volker Behrendt) (10/08/90)
NOTE: Commerial product information. SLIC -the SBus/LocalTalk Interface Card- joines the world of Apple peripherals with SUN workstations. SLIC is a SBUS card for the SPARCstation 1 and uses 1 SBus slot. Using the standard LocalTalk tap boxes, you have direct access to Macintoshes, Laserwriters etc. Even the SUN Laserwriter can support LocalTalk simply by reconfiguring the printer. The main advantage for using LocalTalk as medium for printer access is its speed and ease of use. The LocalTalk protocol is about 12 times as fast as the standard 19200 Baud serial connection to the printer. LocalTalk is truly 8-bit transparent, thus the printing of bitmaps is allowed. Up to 254 subscribers are supported on the LocalTalk network, the SPARCstation can work as a printer-server for other UNIX systems to rout printer requests. In heterogenous networks both SPARCstations and Macintoshes can share the resource of laserprinters. Even more, the bundled software with SLIC supports a VT 320 terminal emulation on the Macintosh computers, acting as remote terminal to the workstation. SLIC comes with complete software support to use Laserwriters as postcript or ASCII printers in your UNIX-network, a terminal emulation and a printer-spooler program for the Macs. The software is delivered on diskette and simply installed as loadable driver module. Operating systems currently supported are: SUN OS 4.1, 4.03 So, in a brief - SLIC lets you + use your Laserwriter with your SPARCstation + use Macintosh as a network-terminal for your workstation + spool printfiles from your Macintosh The SLIC software supports + printing of postscript files on postscript printers with lpr + printing of ASCII files on postscript printers + terminal emulation for Apple Macintosh + routing between LocalTalk and EtherTalk networks SLIC is a joint development of HELIOS Software GmbH and PAC Technology GmbH of germany. With the addition of Helios Ethershare software (not included in the package) you can use the SPARCstation as a AFP fileserver, printserver, spooler, adminserver and Appletalk router. For european inquiries please contact Helios at +49 - 511 - 3 68 10 93 or Fax: +49 - 511 - 3 68 10 95 For international inquiries please contact PAC Technology GmbH at +49 - 30 - 2 13 92 81 or Fax: +49 - 30 - 2 13 91 55 If you are interested, we would like to know your opinion upon this product. We are planning to develop further functionality and would like to get some customer response. So, please tell us what your applications are, what you like (and need) and any further suggestions. Thank You in advance Volker Behrendt