Sitka Banks on PenTOPS

At GO’s recent announcement of a shipping version of PenPoint, Sun Microsystems’ subsidiary, Sitka Corp., announced that its PenTOPS networking software is also shipping and will be bundled with every copy of PenPoint.

Formerly called TOPS, Sitka Corp. has been a steady competitor in the Apple and DOS network market with its TOPS peer-to-peer network. But the company hopes to strike it rich with PenTOPS in the pen-based network market. TOPS has an advantage in the pen market with its peer-to-peer architecture, in contrast to traditional client/server architectures of networks such as Novell or 3COM, for example.

As Sitka president, Deb Triant, puts it, “our technology is better suited to mobile connectivity.” Unlike traditional office networks, mobile networks involve wireless connections that come and go, with the ad hoc addition of new network nodes. Centralized client/server architectures are based on a fixed number of network nodes, with system administrators adding or removing nodes as needed. This centralized approach won’t work very well in the mobile network environment.

TOPS’ peer-to-peer architecture simply requires the network connection to be made and then configures itself. It’s just a matter of plugging in the cable, or in the case of wireless connections, simply activating the network from the system software. We’ve tried TOPS on a Macintosh and PC and it is indeed very easy to set up, unlike traditional client/server networks. PenTOPS comes with only four commands, one of which is “Quit.” Connected machines or peripherals appear to the PenTOPS user as if they are resident on the pen system.

According to Triant, Sitka has a strong head start in mobile connectivity with PenTOPS for PenPoint. TOPS also runs on Macintosh, MS-DOS, and Sun workstation platforms. Triant says the company will also provide a PenTOPS version for Windows for Pen Computing.

Contact:
Sitka Corp.
950 Marina Village Parkway
Alameda, CA 94501
510-769-9669