Innosoft Introduces PMDF-X500 Directory Services for Digital UNIX; Web Access to X.500.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 1996--At EMail World this week, Innosoft International Inc. announced the newest addition to its family of PMDF PMDF Pascal Memo Distribution Facility PMDF Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Foundation PMDF Perfect Mendelsohn Difference Family PMDF Pre-Metal Dielectric Film e-Mail Interconnect electronic mail integration software, PMDF-X500 for Digital UNIX. The availability of PMDF-X500 for Digital UNIX is significant in that this completes the port of PMDF from OpenVMS to its first 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). platform. PMDF-X500 has been shipping in its OpenVMS version since September 1994. Both versions of PMDF-X500 implement the X.500 OSI (1) (Open System Interconnection) An ISO standard for worldwide communications that defines a framework for implementing protocols in seven layers. Control is passed from one layer to the next, starting at the application layer in one station, proceeding to the directory standard, providing an extensible, scalable central data store for directory information. PMDF-X500 supports access to the directory service with TCP/IP TCP/IP in full Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol Standard Internet communications protocols that allow digital computers to communicate over long distances. clients using LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) A protocol used to access a directory listing. LDAP support is implemented in Web browsers and e-mail programs, which can query an LDAP-compliant directory. (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (protocol) Lightweight Directory Access Protocol - (LDAP) A protocol for accessing on-line directory services. LDAP was defined by the IETF in order to encourage adoption of X.500 directories. ) and CLDAP CLDAP Connectionless Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (Connectionless LDAP). PMDF-X500 has also been enhanced to support access from World Wide Web clients, so users can browse directory services and send mail from any Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. . "Where it makes sense to do so, Innosoft is allowing Digital UNIX users to take advantage of the same suite of PMDF e-mail integration products that have been used by OpenVMS users for years, including PMDF-MTA, PMDF-LAN, PMDF-ACCESS, PMDF-X400, PMDF-MB400, and now PMDF-X500 directory services," said Clyde Johnston, President of Innosoft International. "In the next few months, we also plan to bring the PMDF product family to Solaris, so a larger universe of UNIX users can take advantage of PMDF's Internet-style electronic mail integration." PMDF-X500 is an optional add-on to PMDF-MTA, the MIME-based Message Transfer Agent The store and forward capability in a messaging system. See messaging system. (messaging) Message Transfer Agent - (MTA, Mail Transfer Agent) Any program responsible for delivering e-mail messages. which serves as the backbone for the PMDF e-Mail Interconnect system. PMDF-X500 can be used as a standalone directory service, or tightly integrated with the entire PMDF e-Mail Interconnect product set. When coupled with PMDF-MTA, PMDF-X500 can provide for delivery of e-mail messages based on fuzzy logic fuzzy logic, a multivalued (as opposed to binary) logic developed to deal with imprecise or vague data. Classical logic holds that everything can be expressed in binary terms: 0 or 1, black or white, yes or no; in terms of Boolean algebra, everything is in one set or matches against the information stored in the X.500 directory. This feature relieves the e-mail user from having to know exact addresses for delivery of mail messages. PMDF also provides a Motif-based directory browser that can be used to maintain X.500 directory information. In addition to providing traditional X.500 directory services, PMDF-X500 can be used as an integrating engine to provide consistent directory information across an organization that may have several e-mail directories deployed. Provided with PMDF-MTA are a set of directory coordination tools that will move directory data between cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, GroupWise, Digital's DDS (1) (Digital Data Storage) See DAT. (2) (Data Dictionary System) See QuickBuild and OpenDDS. (3) (Dataphone Digital S (applicable to OpenVMS only), and X.500. Delivered with PMDF-X500 is the ability to perform directory differences between any of the supported directories and PMDF-X500, and use the results of the differences as direct input to the directory coordination tools. New World Wide Web support is included in the new release of PMDF-X500 for Digital UNIX, as well as having been added to PMDF-X500 for OpenVMS. This enhanced functionality is also available in the PMDF backbone, PMDF-MTA. Now network users can access X.500 directory services using any Web browser such as Netscape or Mosaic. To provide Web services, PMDF-X500 uses LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) to access the X.500 directory information, and serves that information up as a Web server. By using Netscape, Mosaic, or any other Web browser, a user not only can browse an electronic directory for e-mail addresses and information about e-mail recipients, they can also send mail directly from their browser. The user can compose an e-mail message through the use of a pop-up window provided by the Web browser. As a value-added feature to e-mail administrators, the Web support function in PMDF-X500 is password-protected, allowing administrators to restrict directory access to only authenticated users. This also means that users not only can browse a directory tree, but make modifications to entries. In addition, administrators can modify directory entries using any World Wide Web browser. They can also grant password-protected access so e-mail users can modify their own X.500 directory entries. "World Wide Web technology has been proliferating at an explosive rate," noted Johnston. "Almost all of our customers have been using the Internet, including the Web, since the beginning, which is why PMDF's Internet-style e-mail solution is so well suited to their messaging needs. Now our customers are starting to deploy corporate Intranets; setting up departmental Web servers to support corporate information sharing. "Since the Web is becoming such an integral part of the collaborative computer network, it seemed logical to integrate PMDF-X500 directory services and Web browsers. This is just one more way that we are working to extend seamless e-mail integration to PMDF users." The PMDF-X500 DSA (1) (Directory Server Agent) An X.500 program that looks up the address of a recipient in a Directory Information Base (DIB), also known as white pages. It accepts requests from the Directory User Agent (DUA) counterpart in the workstation. (Directory Service Agent) is based upon the ISODE ISODE - ISO Development Environment Consortium QUIPU code-base, which is widely used by the UNIX community. This allows PMDF-X500 to interoperate with most X.500 implementations, including the largest X.500 implementation currently used in the Internet White Pages Project. The DUA (Directory User Agent Directory User Agent - (DUA) The software that accesses the X.500 Directory Service on behalf of the directory user. The directory user may be a person or another software element. ) included with PMDF-X500 makes it easier for users to access X.500 directory services. PMDF provides a Motif-based graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to , so users can browse and maintain the directory from any X Window system display. The DUA built into both PMDF-MTA and PMDF-X500 uses LDAP, which requires only a TCP/IP connection to link together the directory client application and server. PMDF-X500 can also be integrated with a host of other LDAP-based X.500 DUAs available for Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. Furthermore, PMDF-X500 can automate the e-mail delivery system. Using the Directory Channel in PMDF, PMDF-X500 automatically resolves addresses for messages to anyone registered in the central directory. This means users can find recipients using various criteria, such as the recipient's actual first or last name. The PMDF Directory Channel automatically extracts the e-mail address from the X.500 directory and delivers the message. PMDF-X500 for Digital UNIX is available now at a cost of $6,500 per server. Innosoft's electronic mail products are marketed directly to end users by Innosoft in North America, and are available throughout Europe, New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. , Australia, and Japan through a network of international distributors. The company is located at 1050 East Garvey Avenue South, West Covina, CA 91790; telephone: 818/919-3600; FAX: 818/919-3614. CONTACT: Woolf Media Relations Tom Woolf, 415/508-1554 http://www.woolfmedia.com |
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