Visara International announced a channel attached gateway communications platform that provides a robust alternative to Cisco Routers with Channel Interface Processors (CIPs), IBM 3172 and 2216 gateways. The CNA-8000 Channel Network Appliance can be configured to provide gateway functions for TN3270 clients, SNA PU2 traffic, and TCP/IP traffic. The CNA-8000 host connectivity is provided through single or dual ESCON interfaces.
"IBM and Cisco decided to end their production and support for 3172; 2216 and CIP, leaving customers without an adequate replacement until the CNA-8000," Dr. Kenneth Bloom, CEO of Visara, points out.
Each ESCON interface supports up to 16 control unit images and 256 sub channels.
Network connectivity is provided by a pair of integrated 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet interfaces. Additional capacity can be optionally provided by one additional quad 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet interface. The CNA-8000 may also be equipped with one or more 4/16/100 Mbps Token Ring adapters. Each network interface can be configured to support TCP/IP and/or LLC2 SNA, and/or TN3270E traffic.
The CNA-8000 Channel Network Appliance consists of an enterprise class 3U rack mountable server platform running Linux software. The server is equipped with dual RAID drives, three hot swappable power supplies and several hot swappable fans.
Additional management options are offered through Visara's eManager product. For more details, go here.