OMG Members Meet; Advance CORBA and OMA Standards; Expand Organization's Scope; Standardize Wireless Protocol for CORBA.

Business/Technology Editors

NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2001

At the latest technical meeting week, members of the Object Management Group (OMG) started the final series of votes that will formalize adoption of a wireless protocol for CORBA as an OMG standard. Spearheaded by the OMG's Telecommunications Domain Task Force (Telecomms DTF), the new specification extends the robust world of CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) networking to mobile wireless devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, and hand-held computers.

This OMG Technical Meeting Week, sponsored by Borland Corporation, attracted over 400 OMG members and guests to Irvine, Calif., USA from February 26 to March 2, 2001 where they advanced this and many more standards efforts and participated in other related activities. Over 50 specialists in Healthcare informatics attended a Healthcare Security Information Day to hear presentations on security in healthcare computing systems; featured speaker was Dr. Michael Fitzmaurice of NIH, one of the authors of the US Government's HIPAA healthcare security requirement. OMG members viewed demonstrations of eight CORBA-based products, and heard tutorials on CORBA, the Object Management Architecture, XML in CORBA systems, and the Unified Modeling Language (UML).

Model-Driven Architecture (MDA)

At this meeting, OMG members expanded the scope of the organization's standards by voting to endorse moving to a Model-Driven Architecture (MDA). Based on platform-independent UML models which map to multiple middleware platforms, specifications in the MDA support cross-platform interoperability and portability and thus preserve software ROI as middleware technology shifts over time. This expansion of OMG's mission does not affect the organization's commitment to CORBA, the world's only standard, vendor- and platform-independent middleware platform. For more about OMG and the MDA, go to www.omg.org/mda.

Industry-Specific Technology

OMG's Domain Technology Committee (DTC) standardizes technology in vertical industries including Manufacturing, Transportation, Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance. At this meeting, the DTC started final votes on two new standards: A Data Acquisition from Industrial Systems (DAIS) Facility couples applications to data sources in industrial settings such as electric power generation and distribution, other utilities including water and sewer, and manufacturing processes. And, an Organizational Structure Facility will support Human Resources (HR) and related systems in large enterprises and organizations such as the US Navy, which added its name to the submission as a supporter.

The DTC charters Task Forces that standardize technology in different areas. At this meeting, the DTC chartered the C4I (Consultation, Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence) Domain Task Force. This new Task Force will develop software standards to support crisis responses and military operations in such areas as logistics command and control, and medical care delivery during disasters and emergencies.

Platform Technology Committee (PTC) Standards Efforts

OMG's PTC works on standards that affect the CORBA infrastructure, and on object-oriented analysis and design. In the infrastructure arena, the PTC started final votes on a standard object reference template that will enhance CORBA's support for application server builders and vendors. The Unified Modeling Language (UML), one of the OMG's most widely-used standards, supports analysis and design in every object-oriented environment. Expanding their work on the next generation of UML, OMG members initiated the standardization process for interchange of UML diagrams with the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFP).

Any company may join OMG and respond to the RFPs that define new standards efforts. To access the RFPs, see www.omg.org/schedule. For membership information, see www.omg.org/membership.

Election to OMG's Architecture Board

OMG's Architecture Board (AB) evaluates all RFPs and candidate specifications for consistency with the organization's Object Management Architecture and existing specifications. Elected by vote of the organization's Contributing, Platform, and Domain category member companies, AB members serve two-year terms. Once each year, five members are elected (or re-elected) to fill seats whose terms have expired. At this meeting, the following were elected: Keith Duddy of DSTC; Sridhar Iyengar of Unisys Corporation; Julien Maisonneuve of Alcatel; Robert Mickley of Gazebo Software Solutions; and Jeff Mischkinsky of Oracle Corporation.

OMG Board of Directors Meeting

Following approval by an OMG Task Force, Architecture Board, and Technology Committee, a vote by the OMG's Board of Directors officially declares a new specification. The Board met in Irvine to give final approval to four new and nine revised specifications: New technology adoptions include a mapping of OMG Interface Definition Language (IDL) to the programming language PL/1; the mapping of XML to CORBA valuetypes; and two specifications supporting biotechnology: a bibliographic query service, and a facility for the representation of macromolecular structure. Maintenance revisions were adopted for these OMG specifications: CORBA Core; CORBA Interoperability; the CORBA Event and Notification Services; the mapping of IDL to Java; the Object Transaction Service; the Negotiation Facility supporting electronic commerce; and two service supporting healthcare: the Clinical Observations Access Service and Person Identifier Service.

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, NY, USA.

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), "We're Known By The Companies We Connect(TM)", OMG MDA(TM), MDA(TM), OMG Model Driven Architecture(TM), Model Driven Architecture(TM), "The Architecture of Choice for a Changing World(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.