Equinox to debut Modem Pool management software for Windows NT and CITRIX.SUNRISE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 1996-- Tuesday, Equinox equinox (ē`kwĭnŏks), either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect. The vernal equinox, also known as "the first point of Aries," is the point at which the sun appears to cross the Systems Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : EQNX), a leading provider of serial I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output products for Windows NT Remote Access (RAS (1) See network access server. (2) (Remote Access Service) A Windows NT/2000 Server feature that allows remote users access to the network from their Windows laptops or desktops via modem. See RRAS and network access server. ) applications, announced EquiView Plus. EquiView Plus is a Microsoft Windows NT application that provides sophisticated monitoring, troubleshooting and management functions for modem pools, serial ports and other peripherals connected to Windows NT or Citrix systems using Equinox SuperSerial products. When used in conjunction with an Equinox SuperSerial Modem Pool, it adds enhanced modem management functions to any vendor's internal ISA (1) (Instruction Set Architecture) See instruction set. (2) (Interactive Services Association) See Internet Alliance. (3) (Internet Security and Acceleration) See .NET. modem. Equinox will be demonstrating EquiView Plus and the SuperSerial Modem Pool at COMDEX The former, premier computer trade show in the U.S. Although it grew into an end user event, it was originally created for dealers and distributors (it was the COMputer Dealers EXposition). in Las Vegas (Booth #L4144). By adding management software to its Modem Pool, Equinox now provides a full-featured solution costing as little as $150 per modem. Comparable proprietary modem pools can cost as much as $1,000 per modem. The Equinox Modem Pool, announced earlier this year and shipping in volume, uses low-cost PC modem cards and accepts any vendor's off-the-shelf internal modems conforming to the standard COM port. Modems from US Robotics, Boca Research, Hayes, Microcom, Zoom, Practical Peripherals and others have been used successfully in the product. The Modem Pool consists of a 16-slot PC-type chassis and intelligent I/O controller which is installed in the Windows NT or CITRIX WinFrame system. The controller off loads virtually all of the modem communications processing burden from the host CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. and maintains a very high throughput of 115.2 Kbps simultaneously on all modems. The unique approach of the Equinox Modem Pool eliminates the need for serial ports, cables, external modems and power transformers, and costs far less than proprietary modem pools. The EquiView Plus management software employs a simple and intuitive Graphical User Interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to (GUI (Graphical User Interface) A graphics-based user interface that incorporates movable windows, icons and a mouse. The ability to resize application windows and change style and size of fonts are the significant advantages of a GUI vs. a character-based interface. ) that users of other network management products will find familiar. EquiView Plus provides a view of all connections to the NT system. To monitor status and activity on modems, a user simply points to the modem pool and clicks on the chassis. EquiView Plus then shows a view of all modems at once. Simulated front panel LED indicators are displayed, showing the state of all modem handshake signals and data activity, (even though no LEDs actually exist on the modems themselves). For a close-up view, a user can point to and click on any modem in the chassis. Complete modem status is displayed, including software configuration. By clicking on a simulated "RESET" button displayed on the modem, a hardware power-on reset will be issued to the modem. This is particularly useful for clearing a hung modem and bringing it back to a known factory default state. A loopback test can even be performed on the modem itself to verify data integrity through the driver, modem pool and digital side of the modem. According to Bob Gintz, Equinox VP of Development: "EquiView Plus and the Equinox Modem Pool offer a practical, highly cost-effective alternative to proprietary and external modem pools. It offers monitoring and diagnostic features that rival products costing far more. NT RAS users who have seen the product are very enthusiastic about it. We think its benefits are equally valuable for Point-of-Sale and other remote access applications." In addition to managing Equinox Modem Pool products, EquiView Plus was designed to help solve difficult to diagnose problems associated with the cabling and configuration of RS-232 serial devices such as external modems, printers, terminals and COM ports. Problems installing and configuring serial RS-232 devices are common and frustrating for a number of reasons. Due to low cost and wide availability, virtually any device is available with this interface. For example, serial ports are commonly used to connect such varied devices as modems, [PS1]printers, touch screens, terminals, bar code scanners, scales, instrumentation equipment, and cash registers to a computer system. This wide variety of devices, makes selecting the correct cable and proper interface handshake signals a challenge for even the most technical user. Also, in order to work properly, both the COM port and peripheral device must be configured with matching parameters. To make matters worse, when things don't work, the lack of useful information reported by NT or the application makes it difficult to narrow down the cause. To help solve these problems, EquiView Plus provides the Windows NT user with the equivalent of a software break-out-box and datascope which can be used without the need to physically connect test equipment to the system. The software break-out-box provides real time status of the complete RS-232 interface. It also provides important software status such as the port's configuration, error counts, and internal software flags set up in the driver by the application. If a hardware problem is suspected, a loop-back test can be run to verify proper operation of the port. An internal loop-back test can be used which does not require a physical connector, or external loop-back may be selected by the user. EquiView Plus is scheduled to ship early next year, and will be provided free of charge with the Equinox SuperSerial Modem Pool and Remote Access configurations of 8 or more ports. The Equinox SuperSerial Modem Pool is in production now and carries a list price of $1,695. Equinox SuperSerial I/O products are available in configurations of 2 to 128 ports per slot. ISA, PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). , EISA (Extended ISA) Pronounced "ee-suh." A PC bus standard that extends the 16-bit ISA bus (AT bus) to 32 bits and provides bus mastering. ISA cards can plug into an EISA slot. and Micro Channel versions are supported and list prices start at $245. Equinox SuperSerial products are certified and supported on all major operating systems including Novell NetWare, Microsoft Windows NT, Citrix WinFrame, CITRIX WinView, SCO UNIX, SCO XENIX, SCO UnixWare, BSDI BSDI - Berkeley Software Design, Inc. UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). , Solaris, Linux and others. Equinox, headquartered in Sunrise, designs and markets I/O communications products for remote access and multi-user computer systems. Their products are available world-wide through leading distributors and systems integrators. OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and customers who have selected Equinox for their I/O needs include AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Unisys, NCR (NCR Corporation, Dayton, OH, www.ncr.com) A technology company specializing in financial terminal transactions, retail systems and data warehousing. Until the late 1990s, NCR was heavily invested in the hardware side of the industry, known worldwide as a major manufacturer of computers , Attachmate, and General DataComm. Detailed information on Equinox products, news announcements, seminars, service and support is available on the Equinox web site at www.equinox.com (1) (Computer Output Microfilm) Creating microfilm or microfiche from the computer. A COM machine receives print-image output from the computer either online or via tape or disk and creates a film image of each page. . -0- All product, company and brand names are the property of their owners. NOTE TO EDITORS: In the Internet/email address noted in this news release, there is an "at" symbol, between news and equinox.com. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems. CONTACT: Equinox Systems, Sunrise Mary Dyer, 954/746-9000 ext. 481 news@equinox.com |
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