IBM Unveils System That Links Office Computers
IBM introduced a long-awaited system Tuesday that links office computers together so they can “talk” to each other, but the details were greeted with a yawn by analysts who had expected more.
IBM’s so-called Token-Ring network represents the powerful company’s entry into a fast-growing segment of the computer industry, one that is intended to eliminate much of the equipment overlap and technological confusion that now exists in thousands of large offices.
Because the equipment made by International Business Machines is so dominant in offices, some expect the company’s network to eventually become the industry’s standard way of hooking up various computers, printers and related devices throughout office buildings or complexes.
The market for such networks has never met expectations, and some firms that already offer them said Tuesday that they hope IBM’s entry will lend credibility to the technology and generate business for everybody. Several companies immediately announced their own auxiliary products in hopes of piggy-backing on what they assume will be IBM’s success.
But IBM’s competitors were quick to belittle the new system as slow and unsophisticated. And analysts said it will further confuse customers because, in its current early form, it is no great improvement over a cheaper and already available IBM network system for personal computers.
Joel Levy of Wohl Associates in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., an office automation consulting firm, said it reminded him of the recent new-Coke versus old-Coke snafu: “It almost looks as if this whole thing was done by Coca-Cola marketing research. They call it providing another option. But one man’s option is another man’s confusion.”
Digital Equipment of Maynard, Mass., the nation’s No. 2 computer company behind IBM, has already installed networks connecting about 35,000 separate computers in offices and factories and Tuesday was eagerly offering its executives to comment on IBM’s new network.
IBM is now offering to directly link up to 260 of its personal computers to each other by cable, says Digital marketing executive Maureen Lawrence, but her company’s system can support “literally thousands” of various-sized computers on a single cable that can carry the information twice as fast.
Low-Cost Option
IBM wouldn’t say when its network will be capable of including larger computers, but analyst Louise Herndon Wells of Dataquest, a San Jose market research firm, said it will probably happen in about six months. She said the most significant detail in IBM’s announcement was the low-cost option of using existing telephone wires to convey information between computers.
IBM’s Token-Ring system--a reference to the way that information is physically passed from computer to computer--differs structurally from the Ethernet system used in about 80% of all installed networks. Digital, Honeywell and other second-tier computer firms use the Ethernet system.
