SUNFLASH ! ---------- Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Please address comments to John McLaughlin (sun!sunvice!johnj or johnmclaughlin@sun.COM). (305) 776-7770 -johnj ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SUN, NETWISE AND NOVELL ESTABLISH A COMMON PLATFORM FOR DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING Technology Endorsed by Ashton-Tate, AST Research, Automated Design, Banyan, CMC, DAZIX, Informix, Interactive Systems, Lotus Development, Oracle, Microrim, Relational Technologies, Sybase, 3Com and Unify DALLAS --September 12, 1989-- Sun Microsystems, Netwise and Novell today unveiled a solution that simplifies the creation of distributed applications that will run, without modification, across a wide range of operating systems, hardware architectures and network transports. Software developers will be able to build and distribute to their customers a single, shrink-wrapped software package that will run on many PC LANs, interacting with software on other computers running other operating systems and connected into different types of networks. Novell is the dominant supplier of PC networks, with more than four million PC nodes. Sun is a leading UNIX(R) workstation vendor whose Open Network Computing/Network File System (ONC/NFS(TM)) technology has been licensed by more than 260 systems vendors and other organizations. Netwise produces advanced network computing products distributed by Novell as well as marketed separately. The three companies have combined their networking technologies to establish a new, high-level platform that greatly expands the installed base of ONC/NFS-compliant systems while offering developers a simple migration path to emerging international standards. By pooling their technologies, the three vendors have greatly simplified development of distributed applications (software that makes use of multiple computers on the network). Developers now have powerful tools that will improve their productivity as well as ensuring that the resulting distributed applications will operate across heterogeneous networks, from PC LANs to enterprise networks. Today's announcement has won the support of several leading software developers and system vendors, including Ashton-Tate, AST Research, Automated Design, Banyan, CMC, Dazix, Informix, Interactive Systems, Lotus Development, Oracle, Microrim, Relational Technologies, Sybase, 3Com and Unify. "A major roadblock to the development of distributed applications has been lack of standards for mixed-vendor networks," said David Mahoney, CEO and president of Banyan Systems Inc., supplier of the VINES network operating system. "We believe this announcement is a breakthrough that will accelerate the industry into the era of client-server network computing." Netwise Supports Enhanced Sun RPC Under the agreement, Netwise will engineer the next release of its RPC TOOL to include support of an enhanced version of Sun's Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Library and associated External Data Representation (XDR) protocols. This enhanced RPC is based upon the Transport-Layer Interface that was co-developed with AT&T for inclusion in its soon-to-be-released UNIX System V Release 4 operating system. Support of this enhanced RPC interface provides independence from the underlying network transport (TCP/IP, IPX, OSI, etc.). This means that distributed applications using this interface will be insulated from the need to know what type of transport is actually running in a host system. Novell, which currently markets the Netwise technology as NetWare RPC, will base future versions of its NetWare RPC product family on the new transport-independent RPC technology. As a result, programmers will need just one application programming interface to ensure that their distributed applications will interoperate with heterogeneous hardware platforms (PCs, workstations, mainframes) and operating systems in which transport-independent RPCs are implemented, as well as with all the existing ONC/NFS implementations in which the Sun RPC/XDR interface is already available. New Platform Simplifies Software Development "Today's announcement means software developers have tools to develop heterogeneous distributed applications without becoming networking experts," said Larry Garlick, Sun vice president of distributed systems. "Developers get compatibility with today's installed base of Sun's RPC applications and protection from future protocol migration issues." "NetWare RPC greatly boosts developers' productivity by insulating them from underlying communication interfaces like named pipes, NetBIOS and sockets," said Nancy Woodward, vice president of Novell's Development Products Division. "Because the RPC Library will be resident in NetWare 386, all NetWare developers will have access to industry-standard RPC functionality. Novell's goal is to encourage and grow the market for network computing and we believe that these technologies and tools will accelerate the expansion of this market." "We welcome the opportunity to develop a common platform with Sun and Novell," said David Andrus, Netwise chief executive officer. "We believe our compiler holds the key for developers desiring a simple way to develop distributed applications while achieving independence from lower-level networking protocols and securing a path to international standards." Sun has placed the transport-independent RPC specifications in the public domain and will freely license source code. Netwise will license the RPC compiler technology to interested parties. Migration to ISO Standards The Netwise RPC TOOL offers developers a straightforward migration path to the emerging International Standards Organization (ISO) Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols. The new RPC TOOL will support both the enhanced Sun RPC as well as OSI specification, levels 5 to 7. Developers can make a compile-time choice of which to use. As a result, applications developed with the RPC TOOL will run with the large installed base of RPC/XDR systems as well as migrate unchanged to the OSI standards. The various implementations of the new version of RPC TOOL are scheduled to begin shipping next year. The new RPC TOOL interface will be upwardly compatible with the current products, offering Netwise and Novell customers a smooth upgrade path from their existing versions of the Netwise RPC TOOL and NetWare RPC. Existing applications written to RPC/XDR will interoperate with applications written to the enhanced RPC so customers do not need to upgrade their systems to the new code to continue to operate. Customers will be encouraged to move to the higher-level Netwise RPC TOOL for new development to improve productivity and to insulate developers from migration issues at the lower levels of the protocol stack. Netwise, based in Boulder, Colo., is the leading independent software supplier of products that simplify network computing. Novell, Inc., of Provo, Utah, is the leading independent provider of high-performance connectivity products. The company's NetWare operating system has become a standard for LANs with more than 400,000 operating systems installed worldwide. Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. ### ONC and NFS are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. NetWare is a registered trademark and NetWare RPC and NetWare 386 are trademarks of Novell, Inc. RPC TOOL is a trademark of Netwise, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or organizations. Press Contact: Dennis Freeman (415) 336-6117