These communications adapters were designed and manufactured for IBM. They allow the new generation of smaller and more efficient IBM printers to attach to the legacy "Bus and Tag" standard peripheral attachment bus.

Formation developed adapters to the IBM ESCON and "Bus and Tag" standard peripheral attachment bus. These adapters provide channel functionality with the P/390 as well as peripheral functionality on PCI and MicroChannel buses. They have been embedded with the P/390, and in disk controllers and printers. IBM used these adapters to protect their existing customer base, providing legacy connectivity to their faster, more cost-effective mainframes and peripherals with a rapid time to market.