Pocket Token Ring    Token Ring adapter in pocket-modem size
Put a Token Ring in Your Pocket
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Xircom, the company that brought you the first pocket-sized
stand-alone Ethernet adapter, now has a version for those of you
who need to connect your laptop or desktop computer to an IBM
Token Ring network. It'll be available in production quantities
in early 1990, Xircom promises.
 
Dubbed the Pocket Token Ring Adapter (PTRA), the compact unit
(about the size of a garage-door opener) offers you same "plug in
and play" capabilities of Xircom's Ethernet adapter. Like its
brother, the PTRA plugs into any standard parallel printer port.
Then you plug in the Token Ring cabling to the other end. It's
particularly useful for networking if you have a computer without
any open expansion slots.
 
According to Xircom, the PTRA is possible because of Texas
Instruments' new 2-chip Token Ring chipset, which is expected to
became available by the end of the year. The entire PTRA consists
of just five chips, including 128K bytes of on-board RAM. The
company says they'll have a pocket-sized ARCnet adapter available
in early 1990, with other versions for all major LANs to follow
shortly thereafter.
 
Price: $895.
 
Contact: Xircom, 22231 Mulholland Hwy., Suite 114, Woodland
Hills, CA 91364, (818) 884-8755.
 
                              --- Stan Miastkowski
 
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