The Information Systems Division of Toshiba America in Irvine, California, reckons that it is the first manufacturer to offer an internal networking solution in the portable PC arena – but that doesn’t mean that you have a tiny little local area network contending away inside your lap-top. No, Toshiba has gone to Western Digital for the parts it needs, and will be offering a Local Area Networking card for its 80286-based T3100/20 and 80386-based T5100 portables in early 1988. Going for $300, the card plugs into an internal expansion slot and enables either machine to be connected directly to StarLAN, which runs at 1Mbit-per-second over twisted pairs. With up to 10 levels of hubs, StarLAN can provide access to hundreds of end users. With the StarLAN card installed, Toshiba’s portables can connect to existing StarLANs, become a sub-network on other networks or form a dedicated portable work group. Toshiba’s new T3200 portable can also be part of the network by using a standard IBM-compatible StarLAN card in either of its internal expansion slots. StarLAN supports Novell Advanced NetWare, IBM PC LAN and other network operating systems. Toshiba will be offering the StarLAN card bundled with cables, an installation manual, and driver software for NetBIOS and Novell NetWare.
