TECH REFRESH
Defense Department and intelligence agencies are the target market for two products Pulsar Data Systems Inc. recently added to its General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule and National Institutes of Health Electronic Computer Store II contracts. The 2in1 TSDNet secure communications switch from Voltaire Advanced Data Security Ltd., an Israeli company, can connect a desktop PC to two Ethernets over a single cable.
Defense Department and intelligence agencies are the target market
for two products Pulsar Data Systems Inc. recently added to its General Services
Administration Information Technology Schedule and National Institutes of Health
Electronic Computer Store II contracts.
The 2in1 TSDNet secure communications switch from Voltaire Advanced Data Security Ltd.,
an Israeli company, can connect a desktop PC to two Ethernets over a single cable.
The switch gets around the need to rewire offices for dual classified and unclassified
networking. Each desktop PC user must have an IDE hard drive.
Voltaire built the 2in1 TSDNet switch from its 2in1 PC Card and a central switch
selector that is remotely controlled. The price starts at $3,895 on the schedule contract
held by Pulsar of Lanham, Md.
The switch has received a C2-level security certification from the National Security
Agency, said Kevin E. Linck, a Pulsar vice president.
Also on Pulsars GSA schedule contract is the $4,995 Super Nightingale ruggedized
handheld computer. Its display is readable in direct sunlight.
The Super Nightingale comes with a 133-MHz processor, 16M of EDO RAM and Microsoft
Windows 95. In addition to two Type II PC Card slots, it has two Type III slots and a
fifth slot for a hard drive or flash memory. The Super Nightingale is water-resistant and
works at altitudes of up to 12,000 feet and temperatures between -18 degrees and 55
degrees Celsius, Linck said.
Pulsar also added the CSS Repair Engine for Workgroups from CyberMedia Inc. of Santa
Monica, Calif., to its GSA schedule contract. The client-server application, priced from
$60 per seat, lets an administrator remotely diagnose common PC problems over a network.
Vanstar Government Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., has put the Gateway Inc. Solo 2500 and
9100 notebook PCs on its Army Portable-2 contract.
The Solo 2500 base configuration has a 200-MHz Pentium MMX processor, 512K of Level 2
external cache, 32M of synchronous dynamic RAM expandable to 160M, 2.1G hard drive and
Windows 95. Also standard are 2M of video RAM, 12.1-inch active-matrix display, 20X CD-ROM
drive and Type II/III PC Card slot.
The Solo 2500 starts at $2,049. For $100 more, it comes with Windows NT Workstation 4.0
installed.
For $4,199, Vanstar offers a Gateway Solo 9100 with 266-MHz Pentium II, 64M of
synchronous dynamic RAM expandable to 192M, 14.1-inch display, 5G hard drive and Win95.
Army Portable-2, a governmentwide acquisition contract, carries five-year worldwide
warranties as a standard feature for its hardware.
For information on these and other federal contracts, please consult GCNs Web
site at http://www.gcn.com/csg.html.
Bill Murray
Internet: bmurray@gcn.com
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