In a new development from a company based in Coral Gables, Florida with one of the most bizarre names yet, CocoNet Inc, Novell networking technology users can now run Unix on their systems with release 1.3 of its NetBIOS Unix/MS-DOS Network, called CocoNet. It is an Ethernet implementation of SCO Xenix-Net and Microsoft’s Networks, designed to tie together 80286 and 80386 based micros running Unix, MS-DOS and OS/2, and Novell NetWare. It gives virtual logins as well as access to the Unix file system and print spool facilities. With CocoNet, NetWare-based workstations can run server applications, and both MS-DOS file and record locking calls and the NetBIOS application programming interface are supported. It enables transparent MS-DOS and OS/2 file sharing from NeWare or Unix servers, or both, and the architecture, which merges NetWare and MS-Net in such a way that it is invisible to the MS-DOS user, also enables an MS-DOS-based workstation to run both a NetWare shell and CocoNet NetBIOS Network simultaneously with no additional memory usage. It supports thick, thin and twisted pair Ethernet and StarLan, with Token Ring and ARCnet facilities promised soon. CocoNet is claimed to run with any other network software, and as such, virtually duplicates the functionality promised by Novell’s Portable NetWare for Unix. The rub is in the price. CocoNet, which is compatible with NetWare 2.15 and higher, comes as a hardware/software upgrade kit for existing Unix/Xenix 386 users at UKP1,895, or as a preconfigured CocoNet Tree Server from UKP11,400. It can be obtained in the UK from its distributor LAN Technology International Ltd, Rushden, Northantonshire. CocoNet said other products for integrated communications servers and distributed processing SQL clientservers will be ready by the end of 1989.
