San Jose-based Sony Microsystems Co’s contribution to the UniForum festivities is its Worknetting Server, designed to open Apple Macintosh and MS-DOS networks to Unix and Sony’s erasable and write-once optical disk storage without the need for users to have any Unix experience. The Worknetting Server is (of course) based on Sony’s NEWS family of Unix workstations, coupled with the uShare Unix to personal computer networking software developed by Information Presentation Technologies Inc, Calabasas, California, in which Sony bought a 20% stake last year (CI No 1,300). It supports all Macintosh models over TCP/IP and Internet, and Apple Computer Inc’s LocalTalk and EtherTalk. The Worknetting Server is designed to enable users to exchange complex graphics files between systems; sharing expensive peripherals; back up files automatically; and upload CPU-intensive tasks to larger systems. Through Apple Computer’s MacX software, a Mac can be used as an X Window terminal linked to a NEWS station or other Unix machine. The dual 68030-based workstations, complete with uShare and Unix start at $9,070.
