-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SunFLASH June 1990 Table Of Contents SunFLASH Vol 18 #toc June 1990 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the June TOC for SunFlash. If there are any items that you missed and really want to see, please send email directly to me at flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. If the demand for back issues justifies the effort, I will install a program to service such requests automatically. -flash (aka John McLaughlin) PR: Press Release An 'official' Sun Press Release STB: Software Technical Bulletin A magazine for Customers who have purchased Sun Software Support TOC: Table Of Contents Of popular Sun/UNIX magazines 18.01 PR: 3COM to Support Sun's RPC 3COM TO OFFER SUN'S ENHANCED RPC TECHNOLOGY WITH 3COM DEVELOPER TOOLS Sun and 3Com Corporation announced joint plans that will permit the development of distributed, protocol-independent applications for 3Com networks. By supporting Sun's enhanced remote procedure calls (RPCs), 3Com will make it easier for developers working in 3Com's 3+Open environment to build applications that will run, without modification, across a wide range of operating systems, hardware architectures and networking products. 18.02 PR: BABSS Inc (Sorbus) & Sun Support SUN MICROSYSTEMS AND BELL ATLANTIC BUSINESS SYSTEMS SERVICES SIGN CUSTOMER SERVICE AGREEMENT Sun and Bell Atlantic Business Systems Services Inc. (formerly Sorbus, Inc.) today announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement under which Bell Atlantic Business Systems Services will extend Sun's delivery of hardware-related customer service in the eastern region of the United States. The service will be part of Sun's U.S. Customer Service "Strategic Partner Program," and will expand the number of field engineers available for on-site hardware maintenance calls for Sun equipment. Sun will maintain complete responsibility for customer service contracts, management of service calls, escalation of services and technical service follow-up. Bell Atlantic Business Systems Services' customer service organization will be utilized to provide Sun customers with expanded support. 18.03 PR: Sun's Catalyst Services Software Referral Program, Software Discounts, Other New Services Offered To Sun's Catalyst Vendors Many special new programs and services were added today to Sun Microsystems' Catalyst Program for third-party vendors. Already a dynamic support program, Catalyst includes a range of vendor services normally offered only by companies many times larger than Sun. Catalyst lists more than 3,000 Sun software and hardware products for its SPARC(TM), Motorola and Intel-based systems, offered by more than 1,600 third-party vendors. Among the new Catalyst services supporting these vendors are: Discounts on Popular Productivity Applications New Mac-to-Sun Porting Guide from Addison-Wesley Free Software Referral Program Supports ISVs On-Line Support Service Goes Worldwide Sun Opens Solution Centers Sun Application Development Centers Now Worldwide SBus Development Center Operating System, Demos, on CD-ROM Special Discounts on SPARCware Development Kits 18.04 MIT X etc on CD-ROM Young Minds, Incorporated announces the release of a new CD-ROM disc publication: "GNU 2: The Disc" with X11R4 and FULL-TEXT INDEXING This disc offers the COMPLETE CORE AND CONTRIBUTED SOURCES for X11R4, the newest release of the X Window System. Comprising over 150MB of material, this resource provides window managers, toolkits, clients, games, fonts and demos. Among the highlights are: Window Managers Toolkits Clients Games Demos -------- -------- --------- -------- -------- olwm XView xterm xlife xeyes twm Andrew xperfmon mazewar psycho gwm InterViews xcalendar reversi xmj uwm Xt xcalc xtrek puzzle 18.05 PR: GTC to Offer Hardened SPARCstations GTC TO OFFER HARDENED SUN SPARCSTATIONS FOR FACTORY FLOOR Sun Microsystems and Genisco Technology Corp. (GTC) have signed an agreement valued at $8.6 million under which the Solaris Systems Division of GTC will create hardened versions of Sun's desktop SPARCstation(TM) RISC workstations for factory floor environments. The new Solaris Systems product line, called the Machine Manager(TM), is one of the first hardened SPARCstations, further expanding the fast-growing market for Sun's top-selling workstation. Under the agreement, GTC will also develop ruggedized SPARCstations for military applications. 18.06 PR: SunOS 4.1 on CD-ROM Sun Ships SunOS 4.1 On CD Price Reductions Of More Than 30 Percent On CD-ROM Drives Will Shift to CD-ROM for Distribution in 1991 Sun announced that it is now shipping SunOS(TM) 4.1 on compact disc as an efficient and cost-effective alternative to magnetic tape. To encourage customers to transition to Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) technology, Sun is reducing prices on its SunCD(TM) storage device by more than 30 percent, to $995. Sun will also include a free copy of SunOS 4.1 on CD to new SunCD buyers until August 31, a $300 value. These are the lowest prices in the industry by far for a CD drive bundled with an operating system on CD. In 1991, Sun plans to convert exclusively to compact disc as the distribution media for all its system and application software. Sun's CD-ROM technology offers software developers and users a low-cost, easy-to-use and reliable solution for installing and distributing software, documentation, images and audio. Each CD stores up to 644 megabytes on a single-sided disc. 18.07 Topic Real Time (product press release) Verity, Inc., a Sun Catalyst partner, has announced TOPIC Real-Time, a text retrieval product which connects to any dynamic information source such as a newswire, intelligence feed, or electronic mail system. Simultaneously, Verity announced that they have entered into a joint marketing agreement with Dow Jones& Co. to provide Sun customers access to DowVision, a new composite business news and information service. 18.08 STB: June Contents Short Subjects ... Sun386i screendumps Error 12 Defined Articles ... SPARCstation printcaps Sun386i Technical News In-Depth Feature ... SunOS 4.1/SVR4 Migration Q&A Bulletin Board ... PC-NFS and SLIP Dialups Errors Defined: intro(2) The Hackers' Corner ... Mouse Eyes follow Your Cursor Hardware, Configurations, & Upgrades Software Release Levels Product Dependency Tables 18.09 STB: July Contents SPARC Subjects ... SPARCstation SLC SPARCserver 470 SPARCserver Manager SunOS MLS Subjects... Questions and Answers Application Program Compatibility Bug Fixes and RAMP Articles ... TAAC-1 Programming Course Sun Education in Seattle and Dallas /dev Devices Explained Q&A Bulletin Board ... Setting Up Subnets Hardware, Configurations, & Upgrades Software Release Levels New Catalyst Program Offerings Japanese Versions of IslandWrite/* 18.10 1990 Sun User Group Conference & Exhibit The Sun User Group Announces the Eighth Annual Sun User Group Conference and Exhibit December 3-5, 1990 San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California MARK YOUR CALENDARS ! This year's show will feature: -Over 100 sessions in 5 major categories: Instructional, Systems Administration, Performance, Scientific Applications, and Commercial Applications. -Tutorials will run all day Sunday, December 2nd. Sessions will be offered by Sun Educational Services and other Unix notables. -Over 200 exhibits housed in a 43,000 square foot convention center. See the latest Catalyst and third party hardware and software ported to Sun. To insure that you will receive a registration package, phone the SUG office at 415/336-4341 or 415/336-0564, FAX 415/969-9131 or email users@sun.com. 18.11 PR: X/Open Branded Sun Products Sun announced today that six of its software products and three Sun-based products from independent software vendors have received the latest branding from X/Open. Sun made its announcement in conjunction with X/Open's introduction of its newest branding program, based on version three of the X/Open Portability Guide (XPG3) specifications. The program assures users that products displaying the X/Open brand conform to published X/Open specifications. XPG3 branding applies to individual system components and operating system software. One of the major enhancements to XPG3 is the incorporation of POSIX 1003.1 compliance, which Sun supports in SunOS M 4.1. Sun products that have received the XPG3 brand include: * OpenWindows (TM) * Command & Utilities (in SunOS 4.1) * NetISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) * C Language * Sun Fortran * Sun Pascal * Source Code Transfer (in SunOS4.1) * Inter-Process Communication (in SunOS 4.1) * XSI Curses Interface (in SunOS 4.1) 18.12 PR: Pratt & Whitney Select Sun SUN MICROSYSTEMS NAMED WORKSTATION VENDOR OF CHOICE BY PRATT & WHITNEY Three-Year Pact Could Yield Millions in SPARC System Sales United Technologies Corporation's Pratt & Whitney division has selected Sun Microsystems' SPARC(TM)-based computers as the platform of choice for all of the aerospace giant's workstation and server needs. 18.13 PR: Sun Federal Sells lotus 1-2-3 LOTUS 1-2-3 AVAILABLE DIRECTLY FROM SUN FEDERAL FOR GOVERNMENT COMPUTER BUYERS New Third-Party Software Program Eases System Procurement Lotus 1-2-3 for Sun is now available for government computer customers directly from Sun Microsystems Federal as part of a new program to ease system procurement. 18.14 Sun386i to SPARCstation 1+ Upgrade Program Sun is announcing the availability of a Sun386i to SPARCstation 1+ upgrade program. Sun386i to SPARCstation1+ Sun386i mono to 4/65M-8 $4990/A Sun386i color to 4/65C-8 $5995/A Sun386i color to 4/65C-8-P3 $7245/A 18.15 New SBus Developer List [[ This is from an article posted to the SunSpots mailing list by Jeff Siegel. This SBus list was current on May 7th, 1990. - johnj ]] Many new products have been added to the SBus Developer list in recent months. Currently there are over 65 products from more than 35 vendors on the developer list. Almost 20 product are currently shipping. The listing below has 19 new products coming from 10 new vendors, with some of the products from prior listing deleated because of products slipping. Here is a highlight of the products added since the last update: Vendor Product ------ ------- Able Technilogies Centronics port Agile Systems Serial/Parallel expansion Berkeley Camera Eng. Parallel/serial controller CoSYSTEMS Serial/Parallel expansion RasterOps Live full motion video in a window CSP Inc. i860 co-processor Texas Microsystems Versatec interface IPT Appletalk interface JTS Computer Ststems Compression/decompression board Ariel DSP products Command Corp. Voice recognition system A list of known SBus products available (or soon to be) from third party vendors is attached. This listing does not represent all SBus projects under development. It includes only those vendors who have authorized Sun to make their projects known. 18.16 PR: NASD Selects Sun SPARC The National Association of Securities Dealers Inc. (NASD) has selected UNIX(R)-based SPARCstation(TM) 1 workstations from Sun Microsystems to assist in realtime monitoring of trading activity in the NASDAQ stock market and to investigate suspicious trading practices. 18.17 PR: Mentor Signs $300M Agreement Sun today announced that Mentor Graphics, the leading supplier of electronic design automation (EDA) systems, has agreed to purchase $300 million worth of SPARC(TM) computers over the next three years. The systems, with Mentor Graphics software, will be sold to customers throughout the world. Mentor Graphics announced earlier this year that its entire line of software would be made available on Sun workstations, including its EDA, CASE, technical publications and mechanical design products 18.18 PR: SECURITIES TRADING APPLICATIONS & OPEN LOOK Leading securities trading applications for SPARC(TM) workstations from Sun Microsystems are rapidly adopting the OPEN LOOK(TM) graphical user interface. Fourteen applications, including six new products from Renaissance Software, Programit and FTT Alphameric, are now being shipped that utilize OPEN LOOK, the next-generation user interface that is standard on all Sun systems. The announcement was made at the Securities Industry Association (SIA) show being held here from June 12-14, where each of the 14 vendors will demonstrate their OPEN LOOK products to the public. 18.19 AD: Free OPEN LOOK Video Tape Call 1-800-624-8999 ext. 2068 and get a free OPEN LOOK video tape 18.20 PR: SPARC laptop From Toshiba TOSHIBA UNVEILS WORLD'S FIRST RISC-BASED LAPTOP Engineering Workstation (EWS) 18.21 Common X Questions With Answers From a monthly posting to the main USENET X newsgroup. A long, detailed list of commonly asked questions about X and detailed answers. 18.22 PR: Sun & FPS & SPARC New FPS Supercomputer Extends Performance Range of SPARC Systems Sun and FPS Computing announced today that they have signed a joint marketing agreement that covers their respective SPARC(TM) systems. The two companies will make joint sales calls and engage in other activities to promote customer solutions that include SPARC workstations and servers from Sun and a new SPARC supercomputer to be introduced by FPS. 18.23 PR: UNISYS Renues SPARC Agreements UNISYS RENEWS $10 MILLION AGREEMENT WITH SUN TO RESELL SPARC WORKSTATIONS Sun Microsystems Federal announced today that Unisys has renewed a one-year master purchase agreement under which Unisys will resell -- and purchase for internal development -- Sun's SPARC(TM)-based workstations and servers. The multi-part agreement, which has a potential value of $10 million, covers Unisys' federal and commercial business and also includes a PC-NFS(R) license. 18.24 PR: Matra Ports Its Software To Sun MATRA DATAVISION PORTS CAD/CAM/CAE SOFTWARE TO SUN Sun and Matra Datavision, based in Les Ulis, France, announced today the availability of EUCLID-IS(TM), its high-end CAD/CAM/CAE software package, on SPARC (TM)-based Sun workstations. EUCLID-IS is a comprehensive CAD/CAM/CAE software package that integrates and manages product design, analysis, documentation and manufacturing activities. It features solid modeling technology in an object-oriented database. Because EUCLID-IS supports an open system architecture, it is among the easiest and fastest CAD/CAM/CAE systems to assimilate into engineering and manufacturing organizations. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. It is targeted at Sun Users and Customers. As a field sales and support office, we try to keep SunFlash useful and interesting to you. If you have any comments or suggestions for enhancing SunFlash, please send them to us. SunFlash is ditributed via a hierarchy of aliases. Please try to address change requests to the owner of the alias that you belong to. Please address comments to the SunFlash editor John McLaughlin (sun!sunvice!flash or flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM). (305) 776-7770.