Leading Suppliers Launch Effort to Publish Guidelines for Unix System Development On Intel-Based Servers.

SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 1999--Along with other leading UNIX suppliers -- including Compaq, HP, SCO, and Sequent -- IBM today announced a collaborative industry effort to develop and publish guidelines that software developers and system manufacturers can use for UNIX systems based on Intel Architecture.

These guidelines can help reduce development, maintenance, and test costs for software developers and system manufacturers. For example, software developers will be able to shift their focus from porting programs to providing differentiation in their products and creating new offerings. All types of applications, including enterprise resource planning, e-business, business intelligence and transaction processing, can benefit from this effort.

Industry supporters and contributors to the UNIX Developer's Guide - Programming Interfaces include Compaq, Groupe Bull, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Intel, SCO, Sequent, plus software companies that include BEA Systems, Informix, MERANT Micro Focus, Netscape Communications Corporation, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Progress Software, SAS Institute, and Tivoli Systems.

The guidelines will describe a comprehensive set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and services for a high-volume, enterprise-class UNIX operating system. It will also define an application binary interface for the Intel IA-64 processor, delivering the benefit of applications that will run on UNIX systems from a wide range of manufacturers.

The guidelines will build on The Open Group's Single UNIX Specification by including Public Key Encryption, Lightweight Directory Access Protocols, management and software integration services.

The open systems standards will serve as the preliminary specification that is offered into the consensus process of The Open Group. A successful consensus review will result in a set of open specifications, that are expected to become part of a future version of The Open Group's Single UNIX Specification.

"We welcome this industry initiative to establish guidelines for application developers using the UNIX system on the Intel architecture," said Allen Brown, acting president and chief operating officer of The Open Group. "We expect this initiative will add new functionality to the existing Single UNIX Specification and enhance it to meet the evolving business requirements of software developers and customers. I am particularly delighted that this industry collaborative effort is building on existing open specifications, such as UNIX 98, CDSA, and LDAP, reducing fragmentation and ensuring that the UNIX system is the best computing platform for the third millennium."

"Today, software developers have to bear the burden of costs to support their applications across UNIX systems from different manufacturers," said Rajiv Samant, general manager of UNIX at IBM. "Working closely with leading industry companies, we will help establish common software interfaces quickly and bring the benefits of volume and economies of scale to software developers, systems manufacturers and customers."

Xuan Bui, technology center manager for HP's Enterprise Internet Solutions Center said, "A common API and ABI have long been a desire of the UNIX software development community. The IA-64 processor, with its common instruction set across all vendors, gives us a unique opportunity to fulfill that desire. To capitalize on this opportunity, we are eager to cooperate with these companies to define a common set of software interfaces to meet this need."

"We believe this effort to promote standardization and commonality will go a long way to further promoting high volume usage of UNIX on the Intel Architecture, which will help reduce our support costs, while attracting a greater range of software applications," said Tim Yeaton, vice president and general manager, UNIX software division, Compaq. "Compaq is committed to helping establish a high volume UNIX for Compaq's Proliant platforms."

"Intel Architecture is becoming the unifying architecture for UNIX-based servers," said Bill Raleigh, director of marketing Intel's enterprise server group. "The UNIX Developer's Guide - Programming Interfaces specification, along with the full backing of IBM, will accelerate the availability and innovation of applications running on Intel-based servers."

"The benefits of this effort are very attractive given the volumes we expect for the new Intel chip architecture," said Dave Dargo, vice president, Oracle's IBM product division. "Collaborating with IBM on the UNIX Developer's Guide fits well with our tradition of delivering lower-cost, standards-based software solutions to our customers."

Key target milestones include the initial release of the guidelines in the third quarter of 1999. Reference implementations, development tools and compliance test suites are planned to follow.

About The Open Group:

The Open Group is the consortium for enabling Enterprise Integration. Membership is available to leading organizations in the deployment of IT in a multi-vendor environment who are looking for ways for reducing the time, risk and cost of integrating new solutions often within an existing infrastructure.

The Open Group empowers its members to develop user requirements, business policies, frameworks and standards, adopting and integrating specifications from suppliers and from consortia working on relevant components that makes the implementation of standards-based solutions in an enterprise infrastructure practical.

Editor's Note: IBM news releases and fact sheets are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ibm.com. Additional information on IBM and UNIX can be found at http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix.

Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. IA-64 is a trademark of Intel Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.