The Software Group Limited releases Linux drivers and administration utilities for its SGP hardware adapter to the public domain under the Free Software Foundation's General Public License, version 2. The software is freely available as source code. The drivers interface with existing GPL synchronous wide area communications packages, connecting Linux with serial synchronous communications links running… at speeds up to 4 Megabits/second. With these drivers and The Software Group's SGP hardware, Linux applications can now connect directly with up to sixteen wide area network links running Internet-standard PPP (Point-to-Point) network, CCITT-standard X.25 or CCITT-standard LAPB protocols.

The Software Group Limited supplies the GPL X.25 utilities, SGP hardware specific programs and driver source for anonymous download from its web site at www.wanware.com. For system administrators, the SGP hardware utilities include a protocol trace and decode application along with a command-level configuration program to ease network management tasks associated with WAN links connecting to the SGP hardware.

“The Software Group has increased the value of open software communications interfaces by adding network management components like protocol tracing to their drivers”, said Gary Aviv, Executive Vice-President and CTO at Computer Generation Inc., a leading provider of packaged products for the telecommunications industry. CGI widely deploys Wanware Linux as their X.25 communications router.

The SGP hardware adapter uses bus mastering technology to reduce the overhead normally associated with many other WAN adapters. The SGP hardware adapter is available from the Software Group as a single-, dual- or quad-port adapter, for PCI or Compact PCI computers, and is configurable for RS-232, V.35 or X.21 electrical interfaces.

The Software Group Limited is an innovator in the development of synchronous communications connectivity subsystems. Since 1982, The Software Group Limited products and services have provided corporations with the capability to increase the value obtained from their wide area networks. Since the emergence of the Internet as many corporations' wide area network of choice, The Software Group continues to expand its product line to permit use of the Internet for high performance, secure communications.

 
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