News
NetManage Cuts Through Confusion With New Emulator
- By Scott Bekker
- January 28, 2000
With the hope of easing cross-platform communications, NetManage Inc. will ship their 3270 Terminal Emulator with Microsoft Corp.'s Babylon SNA server. NetManage’s 3270 Terminal Emulator allows users to access IBM mainframes from a Windows machine.
Babylon, Microsoft’s code name for its new SNA product, will connect PC clients to data on IBM mainframes. Managing sessions along the network, it accesses data using standard SNA protocols, then transmits information to users.
The NetManage (www.netmanage.com) 3270 Terminal Emulator will be shipped with Babylon. "The terminal will allow the customer to start with initial functionality", says Thomas Frischknecht, director of strategic alliances and business development for NetManage.
The NetManage product’s interface replicates the look and feel of a dumb terminal logged onto the mainframe. "It’s a green screen," says Frischknecht. What it lacks in pizzaz is made up for in its minimal tax on processor performance.
If users desire a full-featured front end for Babylon, the terminal emulator provides hotlinks to the NetManage site, where users can acquire Rumba, NetManage's flagship emulator. Additionally, the new release allows multiple terminal sessions, providing the user with multiple windows into the mainframe.
Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) currently ships NetManage’s earlier 3270 emulator with SNA server, which lacks some of the functions of the new product. -- Christopher McConnell
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.