CORBA Interoperability Approved as ISO Standard; OMG's Interoperability Specifications Achieve International Standard Status.

Business/Technology Editors

NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2000

The Object Management Group(TM)'s (OMG(TM)) CORBA(R) Interoperability platform was recently adopted by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) as an international standard, ISO/IEC 19500-2. Organizations requiring compliance with ISO international standards may now specify the CORBA Interoperability solution (including the Internet-based GIOP/IIOP protocol) with confidence as a worldwide, recognized, accredited standard. This approval, along with the CORBA ORB specification to be submitted to ISO this year, will give users of ISO standards a working, implemented, commercially supported standard which is a realization of ISO's standard for Open Distributed Processing (ISO/IEC 10746|ITU-T Rec. X.900-904).

The OMG has had a long-standing relationship with ISO. Various OMG standards have been approved by ISO as international standards since 1994. In addition, in 1998, ISO JTC1 granted Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) submitter status to the OMG, which allows the OMG to submit its specifications directly into the ISO fast-track process for adoption as international standards. This shortens the ISO standardization process for these specifications from as much as seven years to about ten months.

These specifications, working together, define a flexible communications infrastructure that supports distributed object computing over virtually any network or combination of interconnected networks, in particular, the Internet. CORBA is embedded in tens of millions of interoperability solutions around the world, from real-time embedded systems to enterprise-wide integration solutions; this important step allows organizations with requirements to use international standards the freedom to use the de facto standard in systems interoperability.

The OMG, an international software standards consortium, maintains close ties with various standards organizations to ensure that adopted OMG specifications are aligned with other industry standards. Other OMG Specifications that have been adopted by ISO include IDL (ISO/IEC 14750| ITU-T Rec. X.920), Trader (ISO/IEC 13235| ITU-T Recommendation X.950) and ODP Type Repository (ISO/IEC DIS 14769|ITU-T Rec. X.960), which incorporates text from the OMG's MOF and UML. The OMG plans to continue to submit technologies to ISO, ensuring that OMG specifications are distributed as widely as possible. OMG standards have been widely implemented and are available in products from hundreds of vendors.

About The OMG

With the support of its membership of software vendors, software developers and end users, the OMG's CORBA is "The Middleware That's Everywhere(TM)." Since 1989, the OMG has been "Setting The Standards For Distributed Computing(TM)" through its mission to promote the theory and practice of object technology for the development of distributed computing systems. The goal is to provide a common architectural framework for object-oriented applications based on widely available interface specifications. The OMG is headquartered in Needham, MA, USA, with an office in Tokyo, Japan as well as international marketing offices in Bahrain, Germany, India, and the UK, along with a U.S. government representative in Washington, DC, USA. The OMG is also a major sponsor of the Integrate 2001 trade show and conference, which will be held September 19-21, 2001 in New York City.

For information on joining the OMG or additional information, please contact OMG headquarters by phone at [phone], by fax at [phone], or by email at [e-mail]. The OMG provides current information and services for Distributed Object Computing through The Information Brokerage(R) on the World Wide Web at www.omg.org and at www.corba.org. Information about OMG Japan can be found at www.omgj.org.

Note to editors: CORBA(R), The Information Brokerage(R), CORBA Academy(R), IIOP(R) and the Object Management Group logo(R) are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group. OMG(TM), Object Management Group(TM), the CORBA Logo(TM), ORB(TM), Object Request Broker(TM), the CORBA Academy logo(TM), XMI(TM), MOF(TM), CWM(TM), OMG Interface Definition Language(TM), IDL(TM), CORBAservices(TM), CORBAfacilities(TM), CORBAmed(TM), CORBAnet(TM), UML(TM), the UML Cube Logo(TM), and Unified Modeling Language(TM) are trademarks of the Object Management Group. All other products or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.