Digital Communications Associates Inc, Alpharetta, Georgia has added to its celebrated IRMA micro-to-mainframe linking boards with products for Windows, MS-DOS and Macintosh System, including new support for TN3270, which enables personal computers to emulate 3270s via TCP/IP, and Novell Inc’s NetWare for SAA. The new IRMA WorkStation for Windows, IRMA WorkStation for MS-DOS and IRMA WorkStation for Macintosh now provide micro-to-mainframe communications through a breadth of options including support for alien gateway products such as NetWare for SAA: the company notes that users in a corporate marketing department that standardised on NetWare for file server and printer sharing could now use IRMA WorkStation for Windows as a client to NetWare for SAA while other users in the sales department could use IRMA WorkStation for Windows to connect to an IBM 3174 through a distributed functional terminal connection – giving both departments a consistent interface for mainframe access. Following IBM Corp’s support for TCP/IP as an alternative to SNA, TN3270 users can also communicate with an IBM mainframe over a TCP/IP internet, connecting to an IBM 3172 and emulating an IBM terminal through TN3270. The new WorkStation products include features such as QuickPads, a user-configurable pad of frequently used keys, macros and scripts, and QuickHits, the ability to use a mouse for point-and-click programmable function key activation from PF options displayed on the screen. And QuickScripts enables users to automate a series of keystrokes, commands and logical branches into a script that can be executed from a QuickPad. The company also offers products that support Control Unit Terminal, Distributed Function Terminal, 802.2 Token-Ring and Synchronous Data Link Control, and IRMA WorkStation for Windows can be a client to IRMALAN/EP, the company’s 3270 gateway. NetWare for SAA support is planned to be included in IRMA WorkStation for Windows, IRMA WorkStation for MS-DOS and IRMA WorkStation for Macintosh near the end of 1992 and TN3270 support for the Windows and MS-DOS versions at the same time. WorkStation for Windows is $500, and the other two are $425 each, the firm said.
