Winix America Inc, a Beaverton, Oregon start-up, is ready to ship Winix Network 1.2, modular networking software it says is not only compatible with both MS-Windows 3.X and Unix, but blends the two environments into a single user-friendly operating system. The product, now Americanised, but originally developed in Norway for government use, was launched last week at Comdex in Chicago, not from the exhibit floor but out of an invitation-only suite. The company, which claims to have the product up and running smoothly in Norway at the Ministry of Defence and in Sweden in the educational administration, is dreaming of becoming the industry’s new standard for client-server interconnection. Winix described its breakthrough as making Unix services such as parallel processing, standardised electronic mail and Unix news plus its own workgroup tools available simultaneously under the Windows interface. The software includes a terminal emulator that integrates Unix applications with Windows by supporting MS Windows Dynamic Data Exchange to transfer data from a Unix session directly to a running Windows application. It supports cut-and-paste between Unix and Windows applications using Windows Clipboard. Personal computer users do not have to be connected by Ethernet to the server. Standard serial communication over telephone lines is sufficient for remote capabilities. Winix has already captured support from several computer firms and systems integrators including Tandem Computers Inc, Motorola Inc, MicroAge Inc and Science Applications International Corp, and says it is negotiating with several OEM customers. The networking software, which is said to have cost $3.5m to develop, will retail for $5,000 for 10 workstations, with discounts on bulk orders.
