Attachmate links SNA, intranets

Attachmate today cleared the path for companies that want to connect their legacy IBM mainframe and minicomputer environments with corporate intranets.

The company announced Emissary TCP Server, a gateway that provides scalable connections between TCP/IP protocol--the protocol that intranets and the Internet are based on--and IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA). With the Attachmate Server, Macintosh, Unix, Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and Windows NT clients on an intranet can use their TCP/IP-compliant applications, such as browsers, to access SNA hosts including VM and MVS systems.

The Emissary TCP Server will run on Windows NT when it ships next month, according to the company. The server will be priced at $11,500 for a 250-user license; $22,000 for a 500-user license; $31,500 for a 750-user license; $40,000 for a 1,000-user license; and $65,000 for a 2,000-user license.