ICL Plc, along with various third-party vendors, announced a host of new products at ICL’s AMSU, Association of Major Systems Users’ Annual Conference in York. AMSU consists of a set of independent user groups, which focus predominantly on the issues surrounding VME mainframes. ICL produced several new offerings, an Open Terminal, enhancements to its NCC 710 and NSG 610 network controllers, a dialogue management system, and release 4 of the Open Systems Management Centre. The Open Terminal is a single 15 monitor, into which a Personality Module is plugged to define the function of the terminal and provide all external connections. The following modules are available now: asynchronous ICL DRS M5-compatible; asynchronous ICL DRS M15-compatible; asynchronous Digital Equipment Corp VT420-compatible; Tektronix 4014-compatible; synchronous IBM Corp 3471-compatible and synchronous IBM 3472-compatible emulations.

Tuxedo

The range is to be extended in the future. The idea behind the Open Terminal is to provide a mixture of the benefits of low cost, fixed functional terminal systems and higher cost, but generally less secure personal computers. The new features available on the NCC 710 and NSG 610 network controllers enable IBM mainframe and mid-range environments to access transparently Unix and Series 39 corporate server environments. The Dialogue Management System, DMS, uses Unix Systems Laboratories Inc’s Tuxedo to integrate multiple proprietary transaction processing systems within an open systems environment. DMS is available for use on Windows-based personal computers, using Microsoft Corp’s Visual Basic, SQL Windows and X Window System emulators, the VT220 character-based terminal, which uses JAM, and any X Window environment, using X tool kits. DMS is fully integrated with VME DDS. Release 4 of ICL’s Open Systems Management Centre, OSMC, is also available now. OSMC is a network management system, based on the Open Systems Interconnection management framework. Enhancements include the addition of an entry-level operations manager, which is hosted on DRS 6000 systems and enables users to introduce systems management on a small scale, before extending it across an entire network. The operations manager monitors the performance of hardware, the operating system, applications and service delivery from a central point. Information is displayed in the form of coloured icons on a graphics workstation. While the old version of OSMC was able to manage DRS 3000 and DRS 6000 systems, release 4 also can manage Digital Equipment Corp VAX, OS/2 and Sun systems.

By Catherine Everett

Powermanager is another enhancement. This product manages networks of Officepower systems, ICL’s enterprise-level office system, from a central point. It monitors users, printers, processes, use of file space and mail-processing in real time, and reports problems to the support centre. No pricing for any of ICL’s products was available. Third party vendors that also released new products were Kingston Bagpuize, Oxfordshire-based Network Designers Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire-based ASE Ltd, Knutsford, Cheshire-based Companion Systems Ltd, Southampton-based Gresham Telecomputing Plc and Manchester-based Manor Park Systems Ltd. Network Designers launched a series of open systems bridges and transport relays called Edge. The Edge systems come in personal computer or NetWare file server kit form and enable users to install extra communications capabilities onto their machines without disrupting normal operations. Proprietary systems can also be incorporated into an open systems environment. Prices range from UKP1,300 to UKP2,200. ASE announced version 2 of its Chronicle automated recording and comparison tool, to be released in the first quarter of 1993. Chronicle records changes taking place in a system, enabling systems managers to analyse the system over time, diagnose any problems or discrepancies, and thus restore the system to its original configuration. The Comparator subsystem enables users to compare and highlight differences between two environments

running the same system or to compare the same system over time. The Documentor subsystem is an interface that displays the structure of the catalogue contents in a clear format that can be retained off-line until it is needed. It provides an historical record, which can be used to help problem diagnosis or as reference material. Release 2 will extend the range of object type that can be supported to include user file stores and VME repair levels. It is to provide profiles of different users and include a personal computer-based option that enables the system to run under Windows. Likewise, the Comparator and Documentor sub-sytems are to be extended to include filestore groups, fully catalogued files and libraries, steering file repairs, system initialisation options and module amendments. No pricing was given. Companion has released a new Data Dictionary System product, DDS Easy Access.

Inexperienced

Aimed at inexperienced users of ICL’s DDS offering, the product provides on-line help and enquiry facilities by means of on-screen selection, using point-and-shoot query techniques. It costs UKP4,500. Gresham launched a Windows version of its Dataserve remote procedure call client-server software, previously available only for VME, VMS and Unix. The Dataserve range provides direct access to ICL mainframe-based corporate data. The new product enables users to develop applications running under Windows, while directly accessing corporate data stores held on their mainframes, in real-time. Prices range from UKP250 per user for one to seven personal computers to UKP200 per user for 24 to 31 personal computers; fees are negotiable for 32 personal computers plus. And finally, Manor Park launched its Access Management Health Check, a new service that checks the security mechanisms, which protect access to the corporate systems housed in the VME mainframe. Price ranges from UKP2,000 to UKP5,000 dependent on the size of the installation. MPS-Spooler is also available now. This software package manages VME departmental printing activities. Price ranges from UKP3,000 to UKP10,000 dependent on the processor size.