Performance Technologies announces the fastest communications controllers for SunSoft Communication Protocols; Dramatically increases wide area communications throughput for Solaris 2.x SPARC and X.86 Platforms

Business Wire, June 27, 1996

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 27, 1996--Performance Technologies Incorporated (PTI) (Nasdaq:PTIX) announced today that they have begun shipments of their ComLink Communications packages. This easy to use software makes PTI's WAN controllers, the SBS332, SBS334A and the new PCI334, Plug n'Play compatible with SunLink communications packages from SunSoft. These boards provide an effective way to dramatically increase the WAN communications throughput for Sun workstations and servers, delivering up to a four fold increase in speed when compared to SUN's HSI card. ComLink is available now and lists for $300.

Users of Sun's suite of communications protocols, such as X.25, PPP, SLIP, Frame Relay, SNA 3270, etc., can easily upgrade their hardware from the Sun HSI/S SBus module or low performance PCI communications adapters to one of PTI's high performance, intelligent synchronous communications adapters for either the SBus or PCIBus. This easy upgrade path has already been taken by a number of large integrators and OEM's.

The PT-SBS332, PT-SBS334A and PT-PCI334 WAN Communications Controllers provide users an intelligent, 2 or 4 port, high speed serial communications interface. All three modules are proven high speed, programmable, serial controllers that support a variety of protocols used in synchronous and asynchronous data communication. ComLink now supports all SBus platforms running Solaris 2.X and all PCIbus platforms using Solaris X.86.

Unlike other controllers, the onboard intelligence (Motorola 68360/CPU32 ) and large DRAM arrays of these boards allow them to handle much of the low level communications activities that typically would burden the host workstation or server. This can greatly enhance overall system performance. The two port SBS332, operating under typical protocol overheads, can sustain a 600Kbps full duplex data rate on each channel, while the four port SBS334A and PCI334 achieve a sustained throughput of 2Mbps full-duplex on each of their channels. All boards support a wide array of communication interfaces, including RS-232C, RS-422/449 and V.35.

In addition to supporting standard SunSoft protocols, a number of third parties have already ported a variety of specialized communications protocols to these adapters. Examples include:HDLC, HDLC-NRM, HDLC-LAPB, SDLC, DCCMP, ADCCP and CD-2, to name a few.

Developer's versions of ComLink for SBus and the PCIBus include the source and documentation. Both now provide users direct support of Sun's "zsh" interface. Customers who write their own communications protocols will find it much easier to integrate the result with PTI's leading edge communications controllers. These versions lists for $1500.

Performance Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Rochester, New York, designs, manufactures and markets a wide variety of fault- tolerant, high-performance communications, networking and data storage interface systems products. The company's products are targeted towards high-performance, mission-critical networking solutions typically used in applications that include telecommunications, financial services, defense and public safety. Performance Technologies is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol PTIX. See our home page at http://www.pt.com for more information. Note to Editors: SBus, Solaris and SunOS are trademarks of Sun Microsystems.

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