Fore takes to the road
Fore Systems wants to make sure that developers on the Asynchronous Transfer Mode road do not run over any potholes.
The ATM die-hard announced the availability next year of ForeThought ATM application programming interfaces (APIs) based on the Microsoft Windows Socket 2.0 and X-Open XTI specifications. The new APIs will make it easier for developers to write programs that take advantage of ATM's high speeds and large bandwidth.
Programmers will be able to write directly to the ATM protocol stack, enabling video conferencing applications, for example, a dedicated portion of an ATM pipe to ensure Quality of Service.
The ForeThought WinSock 2.0 API is designed for use with Windows 95 or NT-based networks. The X-Open XTI API can be used for writing programs that run on Apple Computer's Macintosh, Pyramid Technology's Irix Unix operating system, and Sun Microsystems' Solaris brand of Unix.
The ATM APIs will be integrated into Fore's ForeThought internetworking software package.