Product Selection Considerations

This section will help you determine what asynchronous product you should choose for a particular situation.

Product Selection Aid

The following questions will help you choose an AIX offering for your installation.

Expandability

How many asynchronous ports are needed?

How may ports will be needed in the future?

Topology

Will devices be in other buildings or remote locations?

Does an Ethernet LAN exist?

Where will system/network administration be done?

Is there an HACMP cluster?

What type of cabling is required or already there?

Is connection to multiple hosts a requirement?

Performance

Is your AIX application CPU-intensive?

What types of devices will be attached?

What is the relative asynchronous bandwidth demand for the aggregate sum of the devices?

Relative Device Bandwidth Demand
Low Demand	Moderate Demand	High Demand
ASCII terminals, Point-of-sale terminals, Asynchronous modems	Printers, Low-speed FAX/modems, Bar code scanners	Serial X-terminals, High-speed FAX/modems, High-speed printers, File transfer applications

Micro Channel and ISA Bus Slots

How many slots are available for asynchronous adapters?

Device Interface Requirement

What asynchronous interface is required, for example, EIA 232, EIA 422A, EIA 423, MIL-STD 188?

Do the devices or applications require the full EIA 232 interface?

Is a remote parallel port required for printing?

Security

Is dedicated calling a requirement?

Is a device name to a physical device mapping required?

Is system assurance kernel (SAK) required?

The following table shows the detailed product characteristics.

Notes:

1. DSR and RI are available in buddy mode in the 7318.
2. Socket accepts 8p RJ-45, 6p RJ-11, or 4p RJ-11 plugs with a reduction in signals supported.
3. RTS is tied high (+12V) in the fanout connector box of the 16-port interface cable EIA 232 (FC 2996).
4. Micro Channel Only.

Adapter Applications

Each product offering is characterized by a representative scenario for its strengths. The following are recommendations for each:

8-Port Micro Channel

• A Micro Channel bus slot available for asynchronous I/O.
• Fewer than eight ports with little or no expansion.
• All local terminals located within 61 meters (200 feet) from the system.
• Remote terminals needed (support through OEM multiplexer/modem).
• Device bandwidth demand low to moderate (up to 76.8 Kbps).

8-Port ISA Bus EIA 232 or EIA 232/EIA 422

• ISA slot available.
• Fewer than eight ports required with little or no expansion.
• Requires all EIA 232, all EIA 422, or a mix of EIA 232 and EIA 422 ports.
• Offload character interrupt and terminal I/O processing from the main CPU.
• Asynchronous speeds to 115.2 Kbps.
• Maximum performance for high speed (28.8 Kbps) modems with data compression.

8-Port PCI Bus EIA 232/EIA 422

• PCI slot available.
• Fewer than eight ports required with little or no expansion.
• Requires all EIA 232, all EIA 422, or a mix of EIA 232 and EIA 422 ports.
• Offload character interrupt and terminal I/O processing from the main CPU.
• Asynchronous speeds to 230 Kbps.
• Maximum performance for high speed (33.6 Kbps) modems with data compression.

16-Port Micro Channel

• A Micro Channel bus slot available for asynchronous I/O.
• Eight ports now, fewer than 16 ports with little or no expansion.
• All local terminals located within 61 meters (200 feet) from the system.
• Remote terminals needed (support through OEM multiplexer/modem).
• Devices do not need all EIA 232 signals.
• Device bandwidth demand low to moderate (up to 38.4 Kbps for asynchronous devices).

128-Port Adapter (Micro Channel, ISA, and PCI)

• A Micro Channel, ISA, or PCI bus slot available for asynchronous I/O.
• Sixteen ports now with expansion of up to 128 ports without additional slots.
• Most distant terminal located about 300 meters (1000 feet) from the system at maximum data rate for MC and ISA Adapters, 90 meters (300 feet) from the system at maximum data rate for the PCI adapter.
• Terminals planned: nearby or on premises, distant on premises, and remote.
• Need high asynchronous throughput with low processor demand.
• Need terminal attached printer capability.
• Need to connect to remote premises through fiber-optic or synchronous modems.

7318 Model P10

• Ethernet adapter available or integrated in the system planar.
• Limited number of available slots.
• Need flexibility, investment protection, and distance capability of Ethernet.
• Need high throughput asynchronous ports.
• Need to maximize system performance for Ethernet-attached asynchronous devices while sharing the standard system.
• Need AIX multisystem connectivity.
• Mission-critical applications require standby Ethernet availability.
• Desire network transparency for asynchronous and printer applications.
• Need greater system-to-device distances than the limits of EIA 232.
• Need full EIA 232 modem controls for eight or fewer ports.
• Need high-speed parallel printer ports.
• Standalone diagnostic capability without disruption of the system.
• Need static mapping of tty device names to LAN-attached asynchronous devices.
• Need support for attachment of EIA 232, EIA 423, and EIA 422 devices.
• Asynchronous speeds to 115.2 Kbps.

7318 Model S20

• Desire flexibility, investment protection, and distance capability of Ethernet.
• Need option to maximize system performance with the Network Terminal Accelerator (NTA) adapter.
• Need to communicate with other systems.
• Require system independence for availability.
• Mission-critical applications require standby Ethernet availability.
• Growth requirements up to thousands of ports anticipated.
• Users need access to the network from home or branch offices.
• Applications or users need 3270 terminal emulation.
• Network requires standard TCP/IP protocols (Telnet or rlogin).
• Administrators need network security features provided by DES data encryption.
• Users need transparent print.
• Need high-speed parallel printer ports.
• Administrators need to use SNMP support for LAN-attached devices.
• Need support for attachment of EIA 232, EIA 423, and EIA 422 devices.
• Asynchronous speeds to 115.2 Kbps.

Network Terminal Accelerator for AIX 4.1 and AIX 4.2

• A Micro Channel bus slot is available for the adapter.
• Need flexibility, investment protection, and distance capability of Ethernet.
• Need to maximize system performance for support of Telnet and rlogin sessions.
• Need to communicate with other systems.
• Growth requirements up to thousands of users anticipated.
• Network requires standard TCP/IP protocols.

Note: The NTA is no longer supported in AIX Versions 4.3 and later.

Customer Scenarios

The following represents some typical customer scenarios with suggested asynchronous solutions:

Real Estate Office

• Simplicity and cost are high priority.
• AIX server.
• Six to ten devices tied into the server accessing the database.
• One slot is available for asynchronous.
• Devices are less than 61 meters (200 feet) from the server.

  Solution:

  8- or 16-port asynchronous adapter.

Retail Point-of-Sale

• Cost per seat is high priority.
• AIX server.
• 20 or more ASCII terminals: for example, cash registers.
• One slot is available for asynchronous.
• Future expansion for additional terminals is planned.

  Solution:

  128-port asynchronous controller with two RANs. Future expansion with additional RANs.

Small Manufacturing/Commercial

• AIX server.
• Two to ten users or terminals locally attached.
• Limited slots are available.
• Planning to install LAN environment for longer distances from the server.

  Solution:

  7318 Model P10 communications server.

Large Enterprise

• High availability is a priority.
• Desktop or rack AIX servers.
• Potential for hundreds of sessions supported by AIX.
• HACMP software.
• Ethernet-attached terminal server.
• Heterogeneous network requiring multiple applications.

  Solution:

  7318 Model S20 communications server.