New Equinox multiport drivers support Linux.SUNRISE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 1996--Equinox 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) Thursday announced device drivers that permit its SuperSerial family of 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 to be used with the Linux operating system. This latest announcement adds Linux to the extensive list of environments supported by the award winning Equinox multiport boards for Remote Access and Multiuser servers. The Equinox SuperSerial Technology (SST SST: see airplane. ) products add high performance intelligent serial I/O ports to standard bus systems. They are typically used to connect multiple serial devices, such as high-speed modems, terminals, and printers to computers running Microsoft Windows NT, Novell NetWare, or 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). . In addition to expanding the number of devices that may be connected to a system, the products off-load virtually all of the communications processing functions 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. thereby improving overall system performance. The Linux device drivers and Equinox hardware are optimized for peak performance and efficiency. To demonstrate this, Equinox installed their product in a modest 75 MHz Pentium system and used the public domain benchmark "tbench" to exercise the ports and record the results. In this test, the Equinox product was able to drive 64 ports continuously at 115.2 kbps and consumed only 0.04% of the CPU per Kcps (kilo-characters per second), leaving most of the CPU cycles available for other applications. The Equinox products are often employed in Remote Access applications and by Internet service providers to support banks of high speed modems. The high speed, continuous throughput demonstrated in the test is characteristic of the demands placed on multiport I/O controllers by these applications. This is due to the large data demands of PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) The most popular method for transporting IP packets over a serial link between the user and the ISP. Developed in 1994 by the IETF and superseding the SLIP protocol, PPP establishes the session between the user's computer and the ISP using connections and downloads of graphics intensive web pages, programs or data. According to Bob Gintz, Equinox Vice President of Development: "Linux has recently come of age and provides a very low-cost fully featured platform for Internet POPs, BBS (1) (Bulletin Board System) A computer system used as an information source and forum for a particular interest group. They were widely used in the U.S. servers and other applications that could benefit from the use of our products. We are pleased to offer the same world-class, high quality I/O solutions to this market that we have in our traditional Multiuser and Remote Access segments." Equinox SST products are available from 2 ports to 128 ports per slot; in ISA (1) (Instruction Set Architecture) See instruction set. (2) (Interactive Services Association) See Internet Alliance. (3) (Internet Security and Acceleration) See .NET. , 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 MicroChannel system architectures. Retail prices start from $275 for a 2-port solution. Equinox is the only vendor to provide multi-strike surge suppression at no extra cost across its entire SuperSerial I/O product line. This feature virtually eliminates the most common cause of I/O port failure: "blown" ports. The products are backed with a 5-year warranty. The Equinox Linux drivers have been tested with packaged commercial Linux releases by Redhat, Slackware, Yggdrasil, and Caldera. Included with the Linux drivers is the award winning "ssdiag" diagnostics and troubleshooting program. This application provides full on-screen, remote-capable, real time diagnostic features, including data scope and break-out box functions. Equinox Linux drivers are available for download free of charge from Equinox' web site http://www.equinox.com or BBS (954/746-0282). Equinox will also submit the drivers for posting on the three major Linux public sites "funet.fi", "sunsite.unc.edu", and "tsx-11.mit.edu". Equinox SuperSerial products are fully supported by Microsoft certified Windows NT drivers, Novell certified NetWare drivers and approved drivers for other popular operating systems including SCO UNIX, BSDI BSDI - Berkeley Software Design, Inc. UNIX, UnixWare, CITRIX WinFrame, CITRIX WinView and OS/2. In independent tests published by SCO (The SCO Group, Lindon, UT, www.sco.com) A leading vendor of Unix operating systems for the x86 platform. SCO had also offered Linux, but abandoned the line in the spring of 2003. The SCO Group is the combination of two companies: Utah-based Caldera, Inc. World magazine, Equinox SST products outperformed products by Digi, Stallion, Specialix, Comtrol, Cyclades and others; and Equinox was awarded the prestigious "Top Of The World" editor's choice award. Equinox, based in Sunrise, designs and markets I/O communications products for remote access and multi-user computer systems. The products are available world-wide through leading distributors and systems integrators. OEM customers who have selected Equinox for their I/O needs include Hewlett-Packard, AT&T and Unisys. -0- NOTE TO EDITORS: All brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. In the World Wide Web address noted in this news release, there is a double slash between http: and www.equinox.com. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems. CONTACT: Equinox Systems Inc., Sunrise Susan Zykoski, Marketing Manager 954/746-9000, ext. 218 |
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