Prestel gateway service

A gateway service for the Prestelviewdata system has been launchedby Fintel, the electronic publishingsubsidiary of the Financial Times,and Unilever Computer Services.

One of the first databases to usethe Umbrella Gateway will beFintel's own database of companyinformation, Newsbase, containingreferences to over 25 000 com-panies .

The gateway operates by linkinga modified TV set over a telephoneline to the Prestel computer andthen through a high-speed link toanother remote computer. Whenthe user calls up a Prestel gatewaypage, he is automatically connectedto the external computer . His call isfirst connected to the UCSL front-end processor, which translates hisrequests and passes them to themainfame and subsequently pre-sents the results as standard

viewdata frames in full colour.Many time-sharing applications

can be executed on a viewdataterminal using a gateway to anexternal computer bureau . Infor-mation can be stored in nonview-data files on the external computerand retrieved by special searchprograms . (Fintel Ltd., 102/108Clerkenwell Road, London EC1 M5SA, UK. Tel: 01 251 9321)

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Telephone cables

Plans for two telephone cablescrossing the Atlantic and PacificOceans and totalling 11 500 milesin length have received theapproval of telecommunications

vol 5 no 2 april 1982

An RS232C communications interface from Pro-Log. This communicationsoption allows the M910A PROM programmer to be used with developmentsystems, computers, terminals or modems . It features key-selectablecommunications formats, remote control of duplicate operations and aswitch-selectable data rate from 50-9 600 bit/s, 4-16 kbyte RAM buffer,PROM-based software and an RS232C adapter . (Pro-Log Corporation, 2411Garden Road, Monterey, CA 93940, USA. Tel: 408 372 4593)

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several European countries .The 8 000 mile Pacific cable, to

be called ANZCAN, will linkAustralia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaiiand Canada. It is due to come intoservice in 1984, at a cost of morethan $200M .ANZCAN will replace the

existing COMPAC cable which hasbeen in service since 1962 . It will beabout 20 times larger thanCOMPAC and will carry 1 380 calls .

The Atlantic cable (3 500 mileslong) is presently only at the designstage, but will probably comprisethree pairs of optical fibres and usemonomode transmission at280 Mbit/s to give a basic carryingcapacity of about 4 000 calls perfibre pair .

At present, about 12 000 tele-phone circuits are provided bysatellite links and about 7 000 bycable, rising to 11 200 when TAT-7comes into service in 1983 . (BritishTelecom, 2-12 Gresham Street,

Data concentrator

A self-contained data concentratorsystem has been launched byTimeplex .

Known as the E/Series, thesystem allows the linking of remoteterminal clusters to such minicom-puters as DEC, Hewlett Packard,Data General, Perkin Elmer, IBMand others .

The E/Series family incorporatesa 4-16 channel programmableasynchronous statistical multiplexer/data concentrator, an optionalAdvanced Intelligent Modem with16 kbyte of RAM and an optionalintegral synchronous statisticalmultiplexer. Each channel of theasynchronous multiplexer is fullyprogrammable and features non-interfering down-line loading. Adirect computer interface is alsoavailable that allows the system totie directly to a minicomputer bus .(Timeplex Ltd., Timeplex House, 77Boston Manor Road, Brentford,Middx., UK. Tel: 01 568 1941)

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organizations in the USA, Canada, London EC2V 7AG, UK. Tel: 01 357Australia, New Zealand, Japan and 3814/9, Tx: 8811510) 0