Encore Computer Corp has enhanced its Infinity SP30 disk array processor so that Unix users can share IBM Corp mainframe data sets with mainframe users. The data interchange capability makes it possible for heterogeneous computer systems attached to a single Infinity SP30 to have direct access to user-specified shared disk images and managers can allocate storage managed by the Infinity SP30 to dedicated mainframe volumes, open systems SCSI disk images and to shared disk storage. Apart from MVS mainframes, the SP30 currently supports HP-UX and Digital Unix systems and Windows personal computers. The optional Encore Data Access Facility and Encore SCSI Target Emulation option, enables Unix and Windows computers to access sequential data sets stored with Infinity SP30-managed 3380 and 3390 mainframe disk data, with the emulator enabling some volumes of SP30-managed storage to appear as one or more groups of customer-specified SCSI disks via an SCSI-2 port. General purpose data sharing is expected to be available in the fourth quarter but the Fort Lauderdale, Florida company did not indicate a price.
