In a move aimed at maximising its share of government tenders, D-Link, a supplier of networking products, has announced that it has added pre-boot software to its latest 10/100 network interface card, the DFE-550TX.
Billed as a first for the company, the optional add-on was launched in conjunction with pre-boot technology specialist Diamond Network Technologies (DNT), whose locally developed pre-boot software agent, known as Di-NIC, is the only technology of its kind in the country.
According to D-Link SA branch manager, Bertus Moller, adding an industry-standard management component to its cards was a priority, as many government and corporate tenders specify equipment with Di-NIC technology.
The new adapters are available through D-Link`s local distributor One Technology Group (OTG), with the option of having the Di-NIC agent built-in.
"The fact that OTG is the distributor of the product means we will get more exposure and will also give us the opportunity to forward our product for evaluation or reception into new larger government tenders," Moller adds.
"In addition, because we`ve never operated an agent on our network adapters which gives us pre-boot capabilities, this is a first for us."
D-Link, the third largest adapter distributor in the world, now has a world-class product which can compete with the two biggest competitors in South Africa, Moller believes
"Our technology not only gives extended remote capabilities, but also provides compliance to D-Link adapters," he continues.
"The deal is good for us, because we want to expand our technology to touch everything, and a partner like D-Link is ideal because of the market share it holds and the position it has worldwide with its adapters," says, Rhys Taylor, DNT sales and marketing director.
Di-NIC works in the pre-boot, pre-operating system or operating system absent hardware environment, technically defined as the stage in the PC boot-up process immediately following BIOS initialisation and preceding the "boot-strap" or OS-ready condition.
"In simple terms, Di-NIC loads into memory from a BIOS flash chip, network adapter, floppy disk or modem," says Taylor. "It activates itself after the basic BIOS routines - such as memory and hardware integrity checks - have executed, up to the point where the PC is ready to load an operating system, holding the PC in a "pre-boot" state where the Di-NIC environment remains active.
"All we need to manage the PC in the pre-boot state is a physical connection to the PC, the Di-NIC agent and the Di-NIC management software," he continues. "In effect, a support operator can then mount the PC`s hard disk as if it were connected to his own PC, and take control of any of the PC`s physical resources using third-party software applications, without relying on the client`s host OS or hard disk drive integrity."
Although pre-boot is in its infancy, Moller sees huge potential for it locally. "Most of the large American companies are moving in that direction when it comes to management and South Africa won`t be far behind," he explains.
D-Link`s DFE-550TX Fast Ethernet LAN adapter operates in the 32-bit bus master, delivering high throughputs with little stress on the host`s CPU. According to Moller, the adapter transfers data directly to or from the host`s memory, bypassing the CPU to alleviate the host`s workload by running at PCI clock speeds independently from the network clock.
"The adapter`s single RJ-45 interface auto-negotiates between 10BASE-T Ethernet and 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet connection, and full or half duplex, completely without any need for users to set configuration," he adds.
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