Computer Industry Leaders Extend Single UNIX Specification For 64-Bit Systems And Submit To X/OPEN.SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 14, 1996--Leading UNIX system Noun 1. UNIX system - trademark for a powerful operating system UNIX, UNIX operating system operating system, OS - (computer science) software that controls the execution of computer programs and may provide various services suppliers participating in a working group have delivered a proposal to X/Open that extends the Single UNIX Specification A standard Unix programming interface from The Open Group, which governs compliance. Formerly known as Spec 1170, and containing more than 1,100 API calls, products branded with the UNIX 95, UNIX 98 and UNIX 03 logos conform to Versions 1, 2 and 3 of the specification respectively. to encompass 64-bit application environments. The proposed specification strengthens the consistency between existing UNIX system offerings as they evolve to support 64-bit operations. It will also allow software developers to easily migrate today's 32-bit solutions to next-generation 64-bit environments, and helps accelerate the creation of portable high-performance applications that will run on multiple 64-bit UNIX-based platforms. The initiative, announced in August 1995, has the objective of reducing multi-platform application and system software development cost and complexity, protecting customers' software investments and simplifying the decision process for IT managers as they deploy 64-bit solutions. "X/Open congratulates the working group on achieving the objectives of extending the Single UNIX Specification to 64-bit platforms and agreeing on a common data model. We will rapidly adopt these results into the existing X/Open Single UNIX Specification," said Mike Lambert, Chief Technology Officer of X/Open Co. "We are pleased to continue to evolve the specification and will start an accelerated activity aimed at maintaining and extending the value of UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). as technology evolves. This will result in products that conform to Verb 1. conform to - satisfy a condition or restriction; "Does this paper meet the requirements for the degree?" fit, meet coordinate - be co-ordinated; "These activities coordinate well" the next version of the Single UNIX Specification in about two years time." The working group participants reached consensus on the goal of this initiative to seamlessly incorporate 64-bit applications in a single UNIX environment. The common 64-bit definition for UNIX application environments builds on X/Open's Single UNIX Specification (previously known as SPEC (1) See specs and specification. (2) (SPEC) (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation, Warrenton, VA, www.specbench.org) An organization founded in 1988 to establish standard benchmarks for computers. 1170) by removing data size dependencies in the application programming interfaces (APIs). The working group also agreed to implement a common 64-bit programming model, LP64, for consistency in data representation. In addition, the working group agreed to a common set of extensions to the POSIX Threads POSIX Threads is a POSIX standard for threads. The standard defines an API for creating and manipulating threads. Libraries implementing the POSIX Threads standard are often named Pthreads. interface, dynamic linking interfaces to support the emerging class of extensible self-configuring applications, and agreed to implement common POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX) An IEEE 1003.1 standard that defines the language interface between application programs and the Unix operating system. APIs for software installation and user group management, thus improving system management in multi-vendor installations. Technical whitepapers describing more detail on these specifications are available on X/Open's homepage (http://www.xopen.org). The working group was composed of representatives from Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) Corp., Intel Corp., Novell Inc., NCR (NCR Corporation, Dayton, OH, www.ncr.com) A technology company specializing in financial terminal transactions, retail systems and data warehousing. Until the late 1990s, NCR was heavily invested in the hardware side of the industry, known worldwide as a major manufacturer of computers Corp. (formerly, AT&T GIS), The Santa Cruz Operation See SCO. Santa Cruz Operation - (SCO) A supplier of Unix systems for Intel microprocessors. They supply Xenix and Open Desktop. Founded in 1979, SCO became a public company in May, 1993 and trades on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol SCOC. Inc., SunSoft Inc., and X/Open Co. Ltd. -0- NOTE TO EDITORS: UNIX is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Co. Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. CONTACT: X/Open Co. Ltd. (primary press contact) Nancy Smith, 415/323-7992, ext. 238 or Digital Equipment Corp. Andi Poole, 508/264-5246 or Hewlett-Packard Co. Gary McCormack, 970/229-2370 or IBM Corp. Bill O'Leary, 914/766-3642 or Intel Corp. Tami Casey, 408/765-8203 or NCR (Formerly AT&T GIS) Kathy White, 803/939-6287 or Novell Inc. Trudy Edelson, 408/764-0749 or The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. Monika Laud, 408/427-7421 or SunSoft Inc. John Loicano, 415/786-8040 |
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