Black & White Software and IONA Technologies Ltd. announce strategic partnership.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 1995--Black & White Software Inc., a leading supplier of UNIX-based development solutions, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with IONA Technologies Ltd.

The direct result of this partnership, UIM/Orbix, facilitates the development of standards-based, multi-tiered distributed applications using object-oriented client-server technology.

The software is an expert integration of UIM/X -- the market-leading graphical user interface builder from Visual Edge Software Ltd. -- and IONA's Orbix, a complete implementation of the Object Management Group's Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). UIM/Orbix enables a robust application development environment that allows the creation of CORBA-based clients and servers more efficiently than was previously possible. The software provides a general purpose solution that can be easily applied to specific application development needs, such as database application development.

Julia Miller, Black & White's director of business development, said, "We are excited about this addition to Black & White's suite of development tools. Since UIM/Orbix fully supports the accepted OSF/Motif, Microsoft Windows and OMG standards, it is the ideal tool for developing distributed applications. UIM/Orbix will provide a natural growth path from single facet application development to the creation of object-oriented applications that are both graphical and distributed."

Annrai O'Toole, vice president of development at IONA, commented, "Keeping a tight focus on what we do best is an essential ingredient of the IONA business model. Our goal is simple -- to provide developers with the best Object Request Broker. This partnership allows us to keep our focus, while providing UIM/X developers access to the world of distributed objects, and Orbix developers the ability to build front-ends with UIM/X. It's a best of breed partnership."

With UIM/Orbix, developers can create clients as well as application servers -- using Orbix to provide high performance peer-to-peer communication. By partitioning their application into multiple tiers, developers can improve its performance (through utilizing computing resources more effectively, and reducing network traffic) as well as increase its maintainability (by centralizing the management of business rules).

UIM/Orbix features the Visual Server Browser, which allows application developers to readily see which existing servers are available, the interfaces the servers provide and the operations and attributes supported by the interfaces. Calls to these server interfaces can be incorporated into the client application as though they were simply local calls. Through this feature, developers can easily build clients that access CORBA-compliant servers; such as servers that provide applications services, encapsulate existing relational or legacy data, access an OODBMS, etc.

In addition, CORBA Interface Definition Language (IDL) can be developed within the UIM/Orbix environment, or imported from existing files. C++ classes can then be generated automatically from the IDL description for rapid development.

Moreover, developers have full access to all UIM/X capabilities. They can build "professional quality" OSF/Motif or cross-platform GUI clients (using the Cross-Platform Toolset), as well as build object-oriented GUIs in C++. UIM/Orbix provides a new level of sophistication in building standards-based distributed applications.

Initially available on Sun's Solaris platforms, UIM/Orbix will ship in Q2 95. Following releases will be on SunOS, HP-UX and IBM AIX. The software will be available through both Black & White and IONA. UIM/Orbix includes a Server Builder, Application Builder and Run-Time component. Additional Run-Time components are available.

Black & White Software Inc. is a leading supplier of a wide range of software development and productivity enhancement tools. Based on a modular architecture, Black & White products are structured to provide a comprehensive development environment with an emphasis on the ability to customize and integrate the products. Black & White's product suite contains the latest in Open Systems technology, including UIM/X, db-UIM/X, UIM/ADA, Visual Action Toolset, Regatta-DEX, Regatta-X, Regatta-Win, XRT/graph, Integration Manager, UIM/XMove, Rogue Wave's class libraries and HyperHelp.

Black & White Software is located at 2155 S. Bascom Avenue, Suite 210, Campbell, Calif. 95008. Tel: [phone]. Fax: [phone].

IONA is the world's leading provider of CORBA conformant solutions. Orbix was launched in June 1993 as the first full and complete implementation of the Object Management Group's (OMGs) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard. With Orbix, programmers can develop distributed, C++ object-oriented applications following a consistent and straightforward, standards-based model.

Sunsoft Inc. owns a minority stake in IONA, which remains an independent software vendor. Motorola Inc. chose Orbix as the software with which it will build and control the ground station segment for the IRIDIUM Global Cellular Network program.

IONA Technologies Ltd. is headquartered at 8-34 Percy Place, Dublin, Ireland. Telephone: [phone]. FAX: [phone]. -0-

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CONTACT: Black & White Software

Todd Scallan, 408/369-7400

Sterling Communications Inc.

Carol Nash, 408/428-0100