sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sunflash@suntri sunflash-Send requests and problem reports to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Third Party Product Announcements SunFLASH Vol 52 #18 April 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alsys First To Market With Ada for Solaris 2.x for SPARC Aurora Adds Solaris 2.X Compatibility to Product Family Book: "UNIX Power Tools" CERAM TurboCache/TurboSwap - Solid State Disk Helios Software (Germany) announces SPARC-based OPI server Xcelerated Systems and Helios Announce Software Compatibility IDE's Integrated Structured Environment Available on Solaris 2.x The ASK Group Announces INGRES/Enhanced Security ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: philippe@flash.telesoft.com (Philippe Collard @pulsar) Subject: Alsys First To Market With Ada for Solaris 2.x for SPARC Contact: Tom Erickson (617) 270-0030 Alsys Burlington, MA - April 5, 1993 - Today, Alsys announced a series of Ada software development products supporting the Solaris 2.x operating environment from SunSoft, Inc. This introduction marks the first availability of Ada software development tools for SPARC-based systems running Solaris 2.x. The Ada tools include AlsysU AdaWorld for native development on SPARC-based computers and AlsysU RISCAda* product line for real-time embedded system development hosted on SPARC-based computers, targeting the Motorola 68K family. Alsys formed a close working relationship with SunSoft* to enable it to be first to market with quality Ada products for Solaris. Alsys is a member of SunSoft's Master Developer Series, a program that promotes membersU products as the preferred development tools for the Solaris operating environment. Alsys and SunSoft will also undertake cooperative marketing activities. "Alsys is a premiere provider of Ada development systems," said Denise Peck, director of market development. "The availability of Alsys Ada tools for Solaris 2.1 is an important part of SunSoft's strategy for offering the best solutions for the military/industrial complex and safety-critical markets." "Being first to the market with Ada development tools for Solaris 2.x demonstrates our leadership in the Ada market," said Tom Erickson, Alsys Group's vice president of marketing. "Working closely with SunSoft is key to our strategy of providing programmer productivity- and application quality-improving software engineering tools on the computing platforms most important to software developers." It is especially important for Ada tools to be available under Solaris 2.x as it is now the default operating environment on all Sun MicrosystemsU SPARC 10 systems and is the only operating environment available on Sun's SPARCstation LC and LX and SuperSPARC multiprocessor systems, added Erickson. All Alsys Ada development environments on Solaris for SPARC feature an X Window System*-based graphical user interface and include a global optimizer, Ada sensitive editor, library tools, source-level debugger, profiler, bindings to POSIX and OSF/Motif*, and additional tools and bindings. RISCAda/SPARC cross 68K also includes a suite of tools for real-time embedded systems development including a linker, downloader/receiver, and other real-time facilities. Alsys was the 1992 market share leader for Ada tools on Unix-based platforms, providing Ada tools on workstations from Sun Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard, including the RISC-based 9000/700, on which Alsys was also first to market. These initial releases are part of AlsysU strategy to offer the best support for Solaris throughout 1993. Alsys will upgrade its entire line of SPARC-based cross compilers and its 386/UNIX AdaWorld system to run under Solaris 2.x later this year. Alsys will also offer a Solaris for SPARC version of AdaWorld which will fully integrate with the user-addressable threads capabilities in future versions of Solaris. Alsys will provide a transition path so that Ada applications developed under Solaris 2.x can be upgraded to become multiprocessor-based applications when the new versions are utilized. AdaWorld for Solaris 2.1 for SPARC is available immediately, and is priced at $7,500 per user. RISCAda/SPARC is available 30 days after receipt of order, and is priced from $6,000 to $11,500 depending on the configuration. The RISCAda/SPARCx68K development system is available 60 days after receipt of order and is priced from $17,500 to $35,000 depending on the configuration. All pricing is for North America only; multi-user and quantity discounts are available. Alsys is the leading worldwide developer and supplier of Ada and other technical CASE software engineering tools. Alsys, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a Thomson-CSF company with offices located throughout the USA and in five other countries, worldwide. RISCAda is a trademark of Alsys, Inc. AdaWorld is a registered trademark of Alsys, Inc. OSF/Motif is a trademark of the Open Software Foundation. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. X Window System is a trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. SPARCStation is a trademark of SPARC International, Inc. licensed exclusively to Sun MicroSystems, Inc. SunSoft is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Aurora Adds Solaris 2.X Compatibility to Product Family Contact: balasco@auratek.com (Alfred P. Balasco) Phone: (617) 290-4800 Aurora Technologies Adds Solaris 2.X Compatibility to Product Family Advanced features enable powerful SPARC system expansion Waltham, MA, April 13, 1993 -- Aurora Technologies, today announced shipment of its products with Solaris 2.X compatibility. With its Solaris 2.X product support, Aurora enables users and integrators of Sun's next generation operating system to improve the performance and expandability of their SPARC systems. Aurora's hardware device drivers fully exploit the 32-bit operating system's advanced features. These drivers take full advantage of SPARC multithreading and multiprocessing capabilities, speeding I/O processing and multitasking. These features are particularly important in client server environments running I/O intensive applications such as databases. The drivers also integrate into Solaris' improved system administra- tion framework, easing installation, maintenance, and administration. The upgraded drivers also boost SPARC system performance through more effective use of on-board I/O buffers, diagnostic support, and kernel tracing. Solaris 2.X field upgrade policy: Upgrade kit is available upon request, to Aurora product users. The kit includes the Solaris 2.X device driver, hardware upgrade, and complete installation documentation. For Aurora products currently under warranty (either original purchase warranty, or extended maintenance plan), the Solaris upgrade kit is free. For products with expired warranties, the upgrade kit is available for $150 (Multiport Model 10S upgrade $100). Aurora products are shipped with both Solaris 1.X and 2.X drivers. "Aurora Technologies' move to Solaris 2.X gives our SPARCclassic and LX customers a wide variety of cost effective and powerful SBus solutions to choose from," said Jeff Siegel, Manager of Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation's Core Technologies Group. "As more users move to Solaris 2.X, it's critical to have vendors like Aurora complete the end user and integrator solutions on SPARC/Solaris." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Book: "UNIX Power Tools" From: brian@ora.com (Brian Erwin) Newsgroups: comp.newprod Keywords: O'Reilly & Assoc; UNIX Power Tools; Unix, CD-ROM, book UNIX Power Tools by Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly, and Mike Loukides 1,168 pages, ISBN 0-553-35402-7, $59.95 (Special overseas price $85.00 includes air courier delivery to most countries for one copy of the book) Includes CD-ROM (Available exclusively to individual customers direct from O'Reilly & Associates. Bookstore and distributor accounts must contact Bantam books.) The first "shrink-wrapped" UNIX code will be made available on CD-ROM as part of the _UNIX Power Tools_ book/CD-ROM package. The CD-ROM includes all of the scripts and aliases from the book, plus perl, GNU emacs, pbmplus (bitmap manipulation utilities), ispell, screen, the sc spreadsheet, and about 60 other freeware programs. All software is precompiled for Sun3, Sun4, DECStation, HP 9000 (700 series), SCO UNIX (SCO UNIX binaries will likely also run on other Intel UNIX platforms, including Univel's new UNIXware), and SCO Xenix. Source code is also available. The CD-ROM takes up 60-70Mb of disk space. The CD and book are a package and not available separately. The book is comprised of 55 chapters. Articles include information abstracted from O'Reilly's Nutshell handbooks, new information that highlights program tips, shell scripts, aliases, oddments of history, key UNIX concepts, tips posted to the Internet over the years, and other accumulated wisdom. Includes chapters on: * Logging In and Logging Out * Setting Up Your Terminal * Shell and Environment Variables * Redirecting Input and Output * Moving Around In A Hurry * File Security * Ways to Get Disk Space * Spell Checking, Word Counting * vi Tips and Tricks Textual Analysis * GNU Emacs * The sed Stream Editor * The awk Programming Language * Perl, a Pathologically Eclectic * Shell Programming for the Rubbish Lister Uninitiated * Shell Script Debugging and Gotchas * C Programming...NOT * Help - on line documentation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Individuals and corporations, both domestically and internationally, can order this book directly from O'Reilly & Associates, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Phone (707/829-0515 or 800/998-9938 in the U.S. or Canada), FAX (707/829-0104), e-mail (order@ora.com), or write O'Reilly & Associates, 103 Morris St., Sebastopol, CA., 95472, USA. Please note that _UNIX Power Tools_ is an exception to our normal domestic and international distribution agreements: * O'Reilly can accept international orders from individuals for _UNIX Power Tools_ ONLY and not for any other O'Reilly book. * Overseas orders for O'Reilly books other than _UNIX Power Tools_ will be returned unfilled. * All international orders must be prepaid by credit card, or with a cheque in U.S. dollars on a U.S. bank and will be shipped by air courier only. * O'Reilly cannot accept bookstore or book distributor orders for this books; please contact Bantam Books. To find bookstores where _UNIX Power Tools_ is available, contact Bantam Books at 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10103; or phone 212/493-9666. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: CERAM TurboCache/TurboSwap - Solid State Disk Contact: Scott.Currier@Ceram.COM (Scott Currier) Phone: (800)237-8600 COLORADO SPRINGS (April 5, 1993) -- CERAM, Inc., designer and manufacturer of innovative Data Storage Devices for the Open Computing Marketplace, today announced the availability of TurboCache, the companies newest offering based on the highly successful TurboCard Solid State Storage Device for Sun Workstations, Servers and Compatibles. Typical benefits received from the use of TurboCache are numerous. Caching the Operating and Windowing Systems to Solid State allows increased local performance, while reducing NFS traffic generated from a client by as much as 95-99%. By Caching the O/S and Applications from a data server, the administrative overhead of the individual clients is removed, and the reduced network load improves network scalability, increasing your Client-Server ratio. Since the TurboCard is also used as a high speed swap device, performance of data intensive applications is greatly improved. CERAM has signed a license agreement with Interstream, Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA to sell eNFS/Cache(TM) with TurboCache for client side caching. CERAM will sell TurboCache unbundled for use at sites that employ file caching systems like eNFS/Cache and Andrew File System(TM) by Transarc, Inc. In addition to TurboCache, CERAM markets TurboSwap, which uses TurboCard as the primary swap device instead of disk. TurboSwap data is addressed in blocks, like a disk drive, but is stored in RAM, like system memory. TurboSwap dramtically improves response time on loaded systems, and allows the use of large data sets while boosting system performance. The underlying technology behind TurboCache and TurboSwap is TurboCard, a high-speed, zero-latency ram disk available in capacities from 40MB to 960MB of fully expandable storage. Since TurboCard interfaces to the standard SBus and works on all current and future Sun platforms, users are assured their investment is preserved across CPU upgrades. CERAM's products are sold through a network of Direct Sales Offices in the United States and Europe, and by VARs and OEMs worldwide. Can CERAM products help you? CERAM provides a complimentary system performance software tool which will: * Monitor your systems Memory, Swap, CPU and NFS packet use * Locate and determine the cause of performance bottlenecks * Evaluate if TurboCard can improve your system performance Receive "TurboTool" automatically via email by sending a request with your name, company and phone to: TurboTool@Ceram.COM TurboCard systems start at $1530 for a 40 MByte configuration. TurboCard, TurboSwap, TurboCache and TurboTool are registered trademarks of CERAM Incorporated. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Helios Software (Germany) announces SPARC-based OPI server From: David C Long Contact: David Long, Helios, Hannover, Germany Phone: +49 (511) 3681093 fax 3681095 Contact: Paul Lucero, Helios USA, Cupertino, California Phone: +1 (408) 864 0690 fax 0694 Helios Software (Germany) announces SPARC-based OPI server Helios Software of Hannover, Germany has just announced version 1.0.2 of the OPI server addon for their EtherShare Macintosh-Unix networking product. Following several months of beta testing at around 50 sites last year, the initial enduser version 1.0 was released in January. The 1.0.2 release - now supplied on CDROM - includes several small improvements. The recommended enduser price in Germany for OPI is DM 9500 plus the price of the EtherShare. Please contact your local distributor/dealer for the price in your local currency, and for prices of other Helios products. Helios will be demonstrating OPI on the following two booths at the Hannover CeBIT Exhibition from 24 March - 31 March: Sofha (Hall, 1 4K2) - OPI with Fiery RIP Prisma (Hall 8, A30-B29) - EtherShare, PCShare, OPI Based on the number of server installations, Helios is worldwide the third largest supplier of AppleShare-compatible print spoolers (after Novell and Apple). The following manufacturers of imagesetters, scanners and/or publishing systems integrate either EtherShare or EtherShare OPI in their products: Agfa-MILES, Linotype-Hell, Hyphen, Monotype, Berthold, Crosfield Electronics, CCI, Mannesmann-Scangraphics. EtherShare is installed on 3% of all Sun SPARC MP systems worldwide. The EtherShare networking software lets you use a Sun SPARC computer as a file and print server for the Apple Macintosh. If you are using DTP programs such as Quark XPress together with TIFF or EPSF images, the new EtherShare OPI addon can give you a speed increase when positioning images or printing to the spooler of between 300 % and 800 % or even more. With the EtherShare OPI offering, you store your original high-resolution images on the Unix server disk and work on the Macintosh with layout-quality images instead. The latter are automatically replaced by the original images during the printing process. The layout images are automatically created from the originals by the OPI software. The advantages of OPI are due to the reduction in network traffic and a drop in the amount of data that the DTP application and the LaserWriter driver has to process when printing. EtherShare OPI actually supports two standards: OPI (Open Pre-press Interface) from Aldus Corp. and DCS (Desktop Color Separation) from Quark. Whereas the former concerns TIFF images, the latter concerns color EPSF images. EtherShare OPI offers the following advantages: ** Faster positioning of high-resolution images in DTP applications Placing an 11 MB color image in a Quark Xpress 3.1 document takes about 40 seconds without OPI and only 4 seconds with OPI. ** Faster printing to the EtherShare spooler Printing to the EtherShare spooler of a 4-color separation from Quark Xpress 3.0 takes about 180 seconds without OPI and only 17 seconds with OPI, freeing the workstation earlier for other tasks. ** Smaller print job spool files in the EtherShare spooler Printing an 11 MB image takes up about 11-20 MB in the print spooler, since the spool file duplicates the color image stored elsewhere. The same job needs only 500 kB in the spool file with Helios OPI. ** Allows off-site designers to work with layout quality images Off-site layout artists or designers can work with the layout quality images rather than high-resolution images, which remain on the Unix server disk. This simplifies the transport of the image files due to the much reduced storage requirements, allowing diskettes to be used in some cases rather than exchangeable cartridges. ** Compatibility with EPSF files and DCS All Macintosh DTP and word processing programs that accept EPSF images are compatible with EtherShare OPI. When you store an EPSF image on the EtherShare server, a matching EPSF image in layout quality is created automatically. EtherShare OPI also suports color EPSF images stored as DCS files. ** Compatibility with the OPI standard from Aldus EtherShare OPI can process TIFF images from OPI-aware applications such as Quark XPress. When you store a TIFF image on the EtherShare server, a matching TIFF image in layout quality is created automatically. When printing, the TIFF layout image is automatically replaced by the corresponding color information from the high- resolution CYMK-TIFF image. ** Compatible to Cumulus image database EtherShare OPI is also compatible to the Cumulus image database from Canto Software in Berlin, which is based on AppleShare client-server technology. ------------------------------------------------------------ EtherShare OPI installed at a major Swiss printing plant ------------------------------------------------------------ The Ringier Group - one of the largest printing houses in Europe - publishes and prints a wide range of publications and daily news- papers. They have been using EtherShare Macintosh-Unix networking software from HELIOS at various Swiss locations since early 1991 (they have at least 40 servers running EtherShare or PCShare). In January 1993 they installed EtherShare OPI at their Zofingen printing plant to produce 5 major weekly color magazines and several mail order catalogs representing a total of about 500 4-color separations/week with a mixture of text and color graphics. To quote Mr Samuel Siegrist of Ringier "Apart from the increase in performance, EtherShare OPI has given us a lot of flexibility that we didn't have with our previous system. For example, we no longer have a major OPI re-configuration headache if we want to add or modify spool queues or if we decide to move our high-resolution images to other folders or volumes. With around 35 queues this used to cause us a lot of work. With EtherShare OPI, we can easily set up one queue for high-resolution (final) printout and another for low-resolution test printouts, both on the same imagesetter". Four Sun SPARC servers are used in Zofingen to network about 40 Macintosh workstations to three Purup 8010 imagesetters, one Agfa SelectSet 5000 and one Scantext 2051. The main applications they use on their workstations include Quark XPress, PhotoShop, Illustrator and Freehand. HELIOS is represented in Switzerland by Solid Computer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Xcelerated Systems and Helios Announce Software Compatibility Contact: Douglas Cooper Contact: Richard Wright, Helios USA Phone: (408) 864-0692 Contact: Laura Jordan, Xcelerated Systems, Inc. Phone : (619) 974-2907 Email: laura@xsi.com ETHERSHARE AND LIKEN PROVIDE INTEROPERABILITY BETWEEN MACINTOSHES AND UNIX WORKSTATIONS CUPERTINO, CALIF. and SAN DIEGO, May 3, 1993 -- Helios USA and Xcelerated Systems, Inc. (XSI) today announced 100 percent compatibility between the Helios EtherShare 2.2* product family and XSI's Liken. Liken emulates the Macintosh environment on UNIX; together, EtherShare and Liken provide complete data integrity between Unix workstations and associated Macintosh and PC users. They also provides UNIX users with a comprehensive set of AppleTalk network services. An EtherShare server system, which can service up to 245 concurrent connections, begins at $4,900; a single-user license for Liken is priced at $695. According to Richard Wright, western regional sales manager with Helios USA, "The combination of Liken and EtherShare provides the most reliable interoperability solution on the market today." Ray Wagstaffe, president of XSI, says the synergy between the two products will benefit any workstation user who wants interconnectivity and distributed computing on his network. He says, "Xcelerated Systems and Helios put the "peer-to-peer" in Unix, Macintosh and PC interoperability." Introduced in 1989, EtherShare product family fulfills the networking and UNIX integration needs of groups of Macintosh users with the centralized power of a RISC-based UNIX computer. The family provides Macintosh file, print, mail and terminal services, UUCP mail gateway, AppleTalk routing and tunneling, Macintosh-based remote EtherShare administration, and the EtherShare AppleTalk Developer's Toolkit with libraries and sample code. First delivered a year ago, Liken runs on Sun SPARCstations and Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC workstations; it will be delivered to the IBM RISC System/6000 platform in Q2 of 1993. Liken allows UNIX workstation users to run such Macintosh applications as Claris FileMaker Pro, MacProject, MacDraw, MacWrite, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Aldus PageMaker, QuarkXpress, and Canvas without modification. Liken allows UNIX users to share files and databases, use software residing on Macintosh servers, and to exchange mail via Microsoft Mail and CE Software Inc.'s Quickmail. Almost any application supported by a Macintosh Classic will run under Liken in an X Window on the UNIX desktop. Performance on a mid-range workstation equates to that of a mid-range Macintosh. Founded in 1988, Helios USA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Helios GmbH. It distributes a complete family of interoperability solutions for UNIX, Macintosh and PC platforms within the domestic US and in 25 international markets. For more information, contact Richard Wright, Western Regional Sales Manager, Helios USA, 10601 S. De Anza Blvd., Suite 103, Cupertino, CA; (408) 864-0690; helios.usa@applelink.apple.com. Xcelerated Systems, Inc. provides enabling technology so that diverse computer platforms can be used for mission critical and commodity applications in a seamless networking environment. XSI's products add a new dimension of compatibility and interoperability to open systems architectures. For more information, contact Laura Jordan, Marketing Communications Manager, Xcelerated Systems, 9245 Sky Park Court, Suite 130, San Diego, CA 92123; (619) 576-3080; liken@xsi.com. # # # EtherShare is a trademark of Helios USA. Liken is a registered trademark of Xcelerated Systems, Inc. Xcelerated Systems, Inc. is not affiliated with Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines, or Apple Computer, Inc. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: IDE's Integrated Structured Environment Available on Solaris 2.x Press contact: Ed Niehaus, Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations (415) 615-7908 IDE contacts: Nobby Akiha, IDE (415) 543-0900 Tamelyn Holter, IDE, Europe +33 (1) 39 02 26 02 (France) Keywords: New port, Solaris, Software Development Summary: SANTA CLARA, CA, March 29, 1993 -- Interactive Development Environments, Inc. (IDE) of San Francisco, CA announced the immediate availability of Software through Pictures( Integrated Structured Environment on the Solaris 2.x operating environment for SPARC-based workstations and servers. For more information phone IDE at 1-800-888IDE1. Full Text of Press Release: SANTA CLARA, CA, March 29, 1993 -- Interactive Development Environments, Inc. (IDE) of San Francisco, CA announced today the immediate availability of Software through Pictures( Integrated Structured Environment (ISE) on the Solaris 2.x operating environment for SPARCbased workstations and servers. Software through Pictures Integrated Structured Environment ISE is a multi-user, integrated CASE environment that includes a family of graphical editors, a document preparation system, interfaces to version control systems, and an object annotation facility all sharing a central repository with locking and access control. The ISE graphical editors support structured development methods and notations, including Structured Analysis, Structured Design, and Real-Time Requirements Specifications. Extensive programs for checking design rules verify the completeness and consistency of diagrams. Its tools for document, code, design and database schema generation automate and simplify the transitions between phases of a software development project. IDE developed ISE based upon an open architecture called Visible Connections*. All tool interfaces and file formats, as well as the repository schema, are published and easily accessible. This open architecture allows users to extend and customize their environments, as well as integrate with other tools in order to meet unique project and organization requirements. IDE leverages the open architecture of ISE by combining it with other best-of-class products to create open solutions that support the entire software development process. Pricing and Availability IDE's Software through Pictures ISE on Solaris 2.x for SPARC is available today with a single license price ranging from $5,000 to $21,000 depending on configuration. Interactive Development Environments (IDE) Interactive Development Environments, Inc. (IDE) was founded in 1983 by Anthony I. Wasserman with a vision of providing an advanced software development environment on UNIX workstations. The company has effectively combined this vision with technology leadership, partnership with other industry leaders, and a strong commitment to customer success. IDE's Software through Pictures family of products includes CASE tools that support traditional structured methods and notations, language-specific environments for structured and object-oriented programming languages, and information modeling products. IDE also offers a comprehensive suite of training and consulting services to educate executives, help technical managers, and train developers. IDE leverages the open architecture of Software through Pictures by combining its products and services with other best-of-class products, frameworks, and services to create open solutions that support the entire software development process. IDE's decade of experience with UNIX, networking, graphical user interfaces, and development of client/server applications makes it uniquely qualified to meet the needs of customers developing applications on UNIX. Today, IDE has more than 1,000 customers in 25 countries on 5 continents. IDE's headquarters is at 595 Market Street, 10th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105. Phone 1-800-888-IDE1. Software through Pictures and the IDE logo are registered trademarks of Interactive Development Environments, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. Solaris is a trademark of SunSoft, Inc. SPARC is a trademark of SPARC International. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: The ASK Group Announces INGRES/Enhanced Security Contact: bconnors@ingres.com (Ben Connors) Phone: 510-748-2540 Contact: Glynnis Woolridge Org: Ingres Public Relations Phone: (510) 748-2803 THE ASK GROUP UNVEILS INDUSTRY-LEADING SECURE DATABASE INGRES/Enhanced Security Becomes First Multi-Level Secure Database Worldwide To Be Certified F.O.S.E., Washington D.C., April 14, 1993 -- The ASK Group today announced INGRES/Enhanced Security, the industry's first multi-level secure (MLS) relational database management system (RDBMS) in the world to be certified. The new product, available this month, completed the formal International Technology Security Evaluation Criteria (ITSEC) evaluation at the E3/F-B1 security level. The ITSEC evaluation is the accepted security criteria for the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands. INGRES/Enhanced Security also is designed to meet or exceed the requirements defined by the U.S. National Computer Security Center (NCSC) for its B1 class. INGRES/Enhanced Security will run in client/server environments and supports secure distributed and window-based DBMS applications. Based on the INGRES Intelligent Database, INGRES/Enhanced Security will initially be available on security enhanced VMS and Sun OS Compartmented Mode Workstations (CMW). "The federal marketplace is important to The ASK Group, and INGRES/Enhanced Security underscores our commitment to bring advanced, open solutions to this industry," said Jean-Paul Minarro, senior vice president of marketing for The ASK Group. "We will continue to integrate our leading database technology with key emerging standards, innovative support and customer service to meet the specific needs of federal users." Siemens Plessey Systems, an international systems integrator, provides secure system solutions for the United Kingdom, NATO and other allies. Siemens Plessey developed a secure systems product using INGRES/Enhanced Security. "For a systems company like Siemens Plessey, it is important to establish close relationships with our suppliers," said Brian Curd, secure systems marketing manager for Siemens Plessey. "For our secure system product, we needed flexible software tools to meet the demanding requirements of a variety of customers. INGRES products were able to provide us with this flexibility." Curd added, "Most of our secure systems are distributed. They use client/server configurations, where we can locate the applications that each user needs within his workstation. While beneficial to the users, such configurations raise problems for distributed system security. The ASK Group worked with us to solve these problems and helped us to implement a secure solution for our client/server configurations." Beverly Brown, vice president of marketing for INGRES database and connectivity products, said, "We realize that government as well as commercial areas such as pharmaceuticals, petroleum, chemical and the medical field have unique requirements for additional security within information systems beyond what is traditionally provided by standard hardware and software products. Our development of INGRES/Enhanced Security is in response to our customers' rigorous requirements for data integrity, availability and confidentiality." INGRES/Enhanced Security Features INGRES/Enhanced Security enables government agencies and commercial organizations to combine and protect data with multiple security classifications in a single database. Features include row-level labeling, security auditing and alarms, security label "data types," and sophisticated integrity mechanisms that can centrally enforce complex organizational rules as well as basic referential integrity. To ensure the protection of data, INGRES/Enhanced Security implements configurable security auditing, protection against object reuse, discretionary access controls for users and groups, and mandatory access controls. To enforce a unified security policy, INGRES/Enhanced Security defines the DBMS label format to be identical to that used by the multilevel secure operating system. This permits exceptionally close interaction with the underlying operating system and improves performance for mandatory access checks. INGRES/Windows4GL, the industry-leading graphical application development tool, can be used to build trusted windows-based applications that take advantage of CMW features. The object-oriented capabilities of INGRES/Windows4GL support the encapsulation of security labels in screen objects which enables users to assign different security levels to various parts of the same display window. In addition, INGRES/Windows4GL supports the enforcement of mandatory access controls when cutting and pasting between labeled windows. INGRES/Enhanced Security will support all INGRES application tools and connectivity products. For more information on INGRES/Enhanced Security or other INGRES products, customers in the United States should call 1-800-4-INGRES. The ASK Group, Inc., is one of the largest software companies in the world, with revenue of $432 million for its fiscal year ended June 30, 1992. There are more than 2,400 employees in 90 offices who serve customers worldwide. The company's shares are traded publicly on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol ASKI. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For information send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. Archives are on solar.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@Sun.COM. +1 305 351 4909