U-B, Networth run Novell Netware in 'servers'

Electronic News, May 11, 1992 by Andrew Collier

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. -- In a new wrinkle to the integration of networks, two hub vendors are incorporating Novell Netware into their devices, turning them into virtual network servers.

The two vendors, Ungermann-Bass and Networth, have designed hardware to run Novell's Netware operating system in a device adjacent to the hub. Netware generally resides on a network server, either a PC or a workstation.

The move by the vendors signals a further encroachment by hubs, which began life as wire connectors in the back closet, into the more integrated world of the server. MIS directors "see the advantages of the managed and controlled environment a hub gives with mission critical services," said Jim Goldenberg, product manager with Ungermann-Bass.

U-B is introducing Access/Open, an extension of the company's Access/One enterprise hub, while NetWorth is delivering the Novell operating system on the Netware Application Engine that can be integrated with the Series 4000 concentrators.

U-B said the Access/One consists of a 386SX or 486DX Intel microprocessor on a board built by Cubix, with up to 16 megabytes of RAM, IDE controller, a floppy disk controller, and on-board VGA for set-up applications.

The Networth product consists of a 486 processor, 120MB of hard drive expandable to 200MB and 4MB of RAM expandable to 32MB.

It also features two serial ports, one parallel port, and two Ethernet interfaces, and is available in the third quarter for a price that hasn't been set.

Novell, which supported the announcements, is providing a hub management interface, which hardware vendors can use to design server hub interface cards and write drivers compatible with Netware. Also included is a remote management software package called Hubcon, and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent.

Ungermann-Bass is also planning to extend its 300-megabit per second high-speed bus architecture, the PlusBus, to the interface with the Access/Open, and may eventually fit the PlusBus within the Access/Open, to increase bandwidth.

Hub vendors adding network operating functions may run into a brick wall among MIS directors, believes Frank Dzubeck of Communications Network Architects, because they want to buy servers from major server vendors and leave hubs as strict communications products. "The function of the hub is a communications device. Network operating systems are a computer concept," he said.