Airsoft's Powerburst Now Available to Speed Access Time for Remote Network Nodes.

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 1995--AirSoft Inc. today announced the availability of Powerburst, an innovative remote network node accelerator software solution for Novell NetWare.

Using Powerburst's unique client/agent architecture, remote network users can significantly reduce network access time, in some cases by as much as four times, without making any modifications to their existing network configuration.

With Powerburst, access to electronic mail, network databases, spreadsheets, and other network applications can be optimized so remote nodes get almost the same network performance as locally connected workstations.

Powerburst uses a combination of Windows-based client software loaded on the remote workstation and agent software loaded on a dedicated machine that interfaces with a NetWare file server. Operating in tandem, the Powerburst client and agent apply AirSoft's advanced patent-pending caching algorithms to eliminate redundant file system calls, thus minimizing inefficiencies inherent in network communications over remote node connections.

The key to the power of Powerburst is that it eliminates much of the latency inherent with file-system-based network applications by minimizing the amount of network traffic generated by acknowledgment packets and "handshaking."

Powerburst is not a data compression technique such as those used with modems. Instead, Powerburst is designed to specifically address the bandwidth and latency problems associated with dial-up network connections and can increase performance beyond levels that can be achieved by simply upgrading to a faster connection.

In fact, the Powerburst caching algorithms take advantage of telecommunications data compression schemes and can deliver the same performance improvements whether users are connected via a 9600-baud link, 28.8 Kbps link, or ISDN connections.

Powerburst will at least double performance for any network application. With some applications, such as Microsoft's Foxpro and Microsoft Access, users have seen performance improve more than four times, and some beta users claim performance improvements in excess of 10 times. As a result, remote users become more productive, since they don't have to waste time waiting for a response from a remote server.

Powerburst can also help customers realize substantial savings in telecommunications costs, modem costs, and even the cost of remote node support hardware.

Since Powerburst is transparent to all network applications, it can accelerate access for virtually any file system-based network application. The advantage to implementing Powerburst is that remote users become fully functioning nodes on a NetWare network but with the performance close to that of a local node. It is inexpensive to deploy and easy to manage, since a single remote Powerburst Agent can support up to 64 simultaneous users.

Powerburst is fully compatible with all remote node servers, including servers from 3Com, Cisco, Novell, Shiva, Telebit, Xylogics, and other vendors.

"All of our customers want faster remote access," said Scott McMillan, Vice President of Integrated Digital Networks, a reseller in Occoquan, Va., specializing in supporting large government and commercial network customers.

"With a technology like Powerburst our customers don't have to change the technology they have in place to get four times faster performance, and that's a real selling point. And it's easy for us to justify the cost; with reduced line costs and telecommunications costs the savings are tremendous. That combination of speed and savings is hard to beat, and we already have a number of large customers who are ready to buy, sight unseen."

Powerburst is also 100-percent compatible with existing network security systems. It is transparent to traditional login and password structures, token-based and challenge/response authentication systems, as well as dial-back systems. Powerburst operates above the Transport layer but below the Application layer so it is seamless to existing network security. What's more, the Powerburst Agent is read-only and never writes to the file server so it cannot compromise security.

Powerburst is completely invisible to the user. The client software is installed as a 32-bit VxD on a Windows 3.x workstation. Since the software loads as a Windows Virtual Device Driver it requires no conventional memory.

The Powerburst Agent software is installed on a dedicated PC that is connected to the NetWare server as a NetWare VLM. It supports both NetWare 3.x or 4.x. The Agent runs as a dedicated process under MS-DOS, which provides much better real-time response than Windows. It also operates in read-only mode, reading blocks of data in real time and then supplying the data to Powerburst clients. The Agent can support up to 64 simultaneous clients. It can also log in to up to 50 NetWare servers.

Powerburst Agent software is available for $995. Each Agent is capable of supporting up to 64 simultaneous users. Powerburst client software is available in multi-user licenses starting at $645 for a 5-user pack and ranging to $245,000 for 5,000-user license.

AirSoft Inc. is located at 20833 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 200, Cupertino, CA 95014; telephone: [phone]; FAX: [phone]; http://www.airsoft.com/. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos available.

CONTACT: Woolf Media Relations Inc.

Tom Woolf, 415/508-1554