---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUN UNVEILS DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ROADMAP SunFLASH Vol 16 #20 April 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advanced Distributed Services Will Build on ONC Installed Base MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- April 30, 1990 -- Sun Microsystems today released a "Distributed Computing Roadmap" that outlines the company's multi-year plans to enhance its Open Network Computing (ONC (TM)) technology and add complementary services. When released, all new products will be licensable and will be compatibile with the ONC installed base. ONC is Sun's modular set of networking protocols and services, which allow distributed computing across heterogeneous networks. The best tm known ONC service is the Network File System (NFS ), the de facto industry standard for file sharing in mixed-vendor computer networks. More than 290 organizations have licensed ONC/NFS and more than 90 NFS implementations are being shipped for all major operating systems and hardware platforms. The ONC/NFS installed base exceeds one million nodes. The Roadmap details technical improvements Sun will be making to its Remote Procedure Call (RPC); the RPC compiler; and naming, time/synchronization and authentication services. The plan also describes significant NFS enhancements. "Sun believes that customers and software vendors want evolution, not revolution," said Eric Schmidt, vice president, General Systems Group. "ONC is today's standard for heterogeneous network computing. There is already a substantial catalog of distributed applications based on the ONC Remote Procedure Call mechanism. Sun is committed to protecting customers' investment in ONC while providing a smooth path to new technologies and support for emerging international standards." Remote Procedure Call An enhanced version of the current ONC RPC, called Transport-Independent RPC (TI RPC), will be available to ONC licensees in the second half of 1990. The enhanced RPC is capable of running on a variety of network transports, including TCP/IP and OSI. (Remote procedure calls allow a software program running on one computer to use computing resources elsewhere on the network. This "shared processing" allows a program to use the most suitable processor for particular functions; e.g. compute-intensive processes could be executed on a supercomputer, while graphical representation of the data could be generated on the users' workstation.) TI RPC is already being shipped as part of AT&T's UNIX(R) System V Release 4 and will be supported by major PC local area network vendors, such as Novell, 3Com and Banyan. It is backward-compatible with the current RPC; applications developed using today's RPC library will run unmodified on TI RPC over TCP/IP. RPC Compiler Sun will support Netwise's RPC TOOL compiler as the next generation RPC compiler for ONC systems. This compiler is widely recognized as the industry's best multi-protocol, multi-platform tool for easing development of distributed applications. Sun will make RPC TOOL and the TI RPC development tool set available on the Sun platform in the second half of 1990 through an Early Access Developers' Program. RPC TOOL features support for asynchronous calls so that an executing process will continue to execute while a remote call is made to another system. This will speed execution by permitting concurrent processing. Naming Services to Include Location/Binding Service Sun will enhance its network information service (NIS) by mid-year 1991 to provide stronger consistency between distributed NIS servers. This will allow updates to the name database to be replicated on all servers significantly faster. Security will also be improved. Sun will also offer a distributed binding service, sometimes known as a location service, which will allow an application to automatically locate a service on the network. "Our focus is to simplify the programming environment for the applications developer as well as simplify network administration," noted Schmidt. In the longer term, Sun will concentrate on next-generation naming capabilities in order to support object management development environments as well as interoperability with standard naming systems such as X.500. Time/Synchronization Services In some distributed applications, coordination with world standard time and synchronization of events around the network is critical. Sun will achieve this functionality by implementing the Network Time Protocol (NTP) by the second half of 1990. Security and Authentication Services As distributed computing attracts mission-critical applications, the need for greater security increases. To meet this need, Sun will implement MIT's Kerberos authentication service as well as continue to support and enhance its own Secure RPC product. These improvements will become available in 1991. Distributed File System Sun is committed to maintaining interoperability with the NFS installed base (estimated at more than one million nodes) while making significant enhancements over the next two years in the areas of ease of use, performance, security and read-only availability through file replication on multiple servers. "Our proposed NFS enhancements reflect suggestions from our ONC licensees," said Schmidt. "The improvements will make NFS more portable to non-UNIX environments as well as better suited for wide area networks. It is by such evolution of capability that NFS has won the trust of users. Through such events as the annual Connectathon (TM) , Sun will continue its commitment to helping vendors ensure the interoperability of their NFS implementations." Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is the leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. ### NFS is a registered trademark and ONC and Connectathon are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, 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 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Please address comments to John McLaughlin (sun!sunvice!johnj or johnj@sunvice.East.Sun.COM). (305) 776-7770.