The following announcement was made on 2/27/89:


           NOVELL  AND  SUN  ANNOUNCE  STRATEGIC  ALLIANCE
        Sun's NFS and TOPS Protocols to be Supported by Novell 

BOSTON, Mass. --February 27, 1989-- Novell and Sun Microsystems today
announced a strategic marketing and development alliance designed to
give users interoperability between the two companies' product
families.  Under the agreement,  the companies will integrate Sun's
TOPS and NFS (network file system) protocols to provide connectivity
between NetWare, TOPS and ONC/NFS networks.
	The alliance between Novell and Sun's TOPS Division joins the
leaders in the workgroup and department microcomputer network
environments.  TOPS' peer-to-peer architecture and Novell's
client-server architecture offer benefits to both sets of customers.
TOPS users will be able to access NetWare servers directly, giving them
an upgrade path as their need for more\advanced network services
grows.  The 3.5 million NetWare users will have greaterflexibility in
accessing information stored locally at network workstations.
	Two weeks ago Novell announced that it licensed Sun's NFS.
Novell will be incorporating the NFS/ONC protocols into future releases
of NetWare whereby a Sun, or any ONC, workstation can access NetWare
servers.  Sun NFS licensees will get greater filesharing capabilities
across multivendor environments.
	Craig Burton, senior vice president of Novell, said, "Sun has
been a pioneer in driving open network standards in multivendor
computing environments and we are enthusiastic about the opportunity to
work with them.  The integration of NetWare and TOPS networks in the
near-term will be particularly beneficial for users of both products.
In our longer-term product development efforts with Sun, the concepts
for other jointly developed advanced products is particularly exciting.  
We look forward to developing systems with Sun that will help users realize the full potential of their computing resources."
	Larry Garlick, vice president of Sun Microsystems, said, "The move 
towards open network computing is a clear industry direction.  Customers 
are demanding more cooperation among vendors.  As a leader in 
standards-based networking, Sun is pleased about the formation of
a strategic partnership with Novell.  Novell represents the
leading standard for PC-departmental networking.  The combination 
of Sun's UNIX-based ONC/NFS products and the family of products
represented by Novell's Open Protocol Technology will provide a powerful
set of solutions to both of our customers."
	NetWare Open Systems is Novell's strategy to provide
users with freedom of choice to design the best network for their 
specific applications.  Under NetWare Open Systems, users have their
choice of network topology, medium, client and server hardware, operating
system,user interface and software applications, all sharing information 
and services transparently across the network.  Novell supports 
Macintosh, DOS and OS/2 operating systems as clients.
	There are more than 600,000 TOPS nodes installed worldwide.  
The TOPS products dominate the AppleTalk market for heterogeneous
networking.  TOPS' ease of use and installation have made it the standard 
for workgroup computing environments requiring self-administering
networks.  TOPS also provides connectivity to Sun's ONC/NFS environment through
the TOPS for Sun gateway and PC-NFS products.
	Sun Microsystems is the world's leading supplier of network-based
distributed computing systems.  Sun's TOPS Division specializes in 
developing and marketing networking products for IBM PCs, Apple 
Macintoshes and UNIX-based computers such as Sun workstations.
	Novell is the leading independent provider of high-performance 
networking connectivity products.  The company's NetWare operating system
has become a standard for LANs, with more than 350,000 operating systems
installed worldwide.  Novell's common stock is traded on the NASDAQ 
national market system under the symbol NOVL.
                                      #   #   #

Press Contact:
Kim Tarter
TOPS 
(415) 769-2580