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                                                        The Florida SunFlash

    Vendors Test TI-RPC/Netwise Technology At Connectathon 92

SunFLASH Vol 39 #3					          March 1992 
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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- March 4, 1992 -- Connectathon '92, the annual
interoperability event, was marked by the first interoperability
testing of the Transport-Independent Remote Procedure Call (TI-RPC)
interface.  Vendors taking part included Fujitsu, IBM, Motorola,
Novell, SunSoft and SunConnect.  Interoperability was demonstrated on a
variety of system software, including NetWare, PC-NFS, AIX/6000,
Solaris, UNIX System V Release 4 and the AIX/ESA operating system,
running on PCs, workstations from Fujitsu, IBM, Motorola and Sun, and
an IBM mainframe.

In addition to testing TI-RPC, vendors ensured that distributed
applications generated by Netwise's RPC TOOL compiler were able to run
across multiple platforms.  The Netwise technology has been licensed by
several vendors, including SunSoft, for resale as an advanced platform
for the development of distributed applications.

TI-RPC, part of SunSoft's Open Network Computing (ONC) platform, was
co-developed by Sun and AT&T for UNIX System V Release 4.  The source
code is freely available for porting to non-SVR4 systems and currently
runs on numerous systems, including NetWare, DOS, and IBM MVS and AIX.
TI-RPC is compatible with the earlier ONC RPC and is designed to be
independent of the underlying network transport.  This means developers
can write their application once and run it unmodified over multiple
transport protocols.

"The Connectathon tests proved the concept of transport-independence,"
said Bill Coleman, SunSoft vice-president of system software, "Novell
was able to run the same test suite over its IPX/SPX protocol and
interoperate with Sun and IBM systems running TCP/IP.  No other major
remote procedure call technology could have done the same thing."

Netwise, based in Boulder, Colo., has developed an advanced code
generator known as RPC TOOL, which allows developers to input
straightforward C-language program to a pre-compiler.  The compiler
will generate all the communications code needed to distribute the
program over two or more systems on the network.  Netwise has developed
a version of the RPC TOOL which generates TI-RPC code.  SunSoft is now
shipping this product, known as the ONC RPC Application Toolkit, to
vendors of its Solaris operating environment.

"We have been able to show the compatibility of distributed
applications  generated by versions of RPC TOOL running on several
platforms, including IBM's AIX/ESA, Novell NetWare, DOS and Solaris,"
said Netwise chairman David Andrus.  "We have also, independently,
tested our product and TI-RPC on IBM's MVS mainframe operating system
and in IBM AIX/6000 and AIX/370 environments.  This means that software
developers can write RPC-based distributed applications today that will
run on a range of systems from PC to mainframes.  The huge installed
base of ONC, (over 3 million nodes today) combined with development
tools such as Netwise's RPC TOOL, will be very attractive to software
developers."

Connectathon is an annual event, managed by SunSoft, designed to permit
vendors to test the interoperability of their ONC/NFS and X Window
System implementations.  Connectathon '92 sponsors included SynOptics
Communications, Dactek, Hayes Event Management, Cisco Systems, SunWorld
Magazine, Novell, X/Open Company Limited, SPARC International, UNIX
International, SunSoft and Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation.

Sun Microsystems, SunSoft, Solaris, ONC, NFS and Connectathon are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is
a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.
NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. All other products or
service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective
owners.

SunSoft, Inc.  Laura Ramsey 415-336-0739

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