sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sun/NC/north-carolina sunflash-Send requests, problems to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Sunergy Newsletter #12, November 1993 (part 2 of 2) SunFLASH Vol 59 #15 November 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59.15.A *5* Network Computing: The Network Is STILL the Computer by Dr. Eric Schmidt, Sun Microsystems, Inc. 59.15.B *6* Sun Solutions Announcement Already posted to SunFlash, so not included. 59.15.C Sunergy Sign-up Form If you are not already a member of Sunergy and would like to join, simply fill out and return this form. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59.15.A Subject: *5* Network Computing: The Network Is STILL the Computer by Dr. Eric Schmidt, Sun Microsystems, Inc. The power of distributed, networked computers is effecting a profound change on corporations. Few would blink over this statement today. But in the early `80s, when Sun Microsystems coined the phrase, "The network is the computer, " this concept seemed as odd as envisioning a world without the Cold War. Yes, times have changed. While only the foolhardy would embrace a corporate computing solution without networking today, the ideological skirmishes now settle on what flavor of computer will dominate the network. Computer vendors are all racing to control the standard computing platform at the turn of the century: 32-bit (or greater), multitasking desktops linked in a peer-to-peer network. The FUD factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) has probably never been higher as competing vendors attempt to grab customer mind-share for products and not-quite-products and terrorize users into putting off -- or changing -- purchasing decisions in order to catch the purported new wave of computing -- whatever it may be. Pity the poor corporate MIS manager today. Should he hang onto his old minicomputers and terminals? Should he continue to add Windows to all his PC-class systems, or wait until Microsoft and Intel, with NT and Pentium, respectively, make these systems obsolete? And what's to become of his mainframe? There is no longer a "safe choice," like there was during all the years before large, three-letter companies had to downsize their businesses. To be successful today, companies must know how to navigate through the rapid changes in information systems in order to use that key commodity of the `90s -- information -- as a valuable strategic asset. One computing solution has a unique pedigree: it is the only one designed so that diverse users across the globe can get the fastest possible access to information. It is the UNIX operating system, developed more than 24 years ago as the first inherently networked system -- one "around which a fellowship could form," in the words of co-designer Dennis Ritchie from Bell Labs. Over the years, UNIX has evolved far beyond its origins in the technical and scientific community. Benefitting from its two-plus decades of broad use, today's UNIX runs on the industry's most powerful desktop computers. But more importantly, it is the only operating system and development environment that is available from many different vendors. Some could say that the spiritual inspiration for the open systems movement that has swept through the computer industry began with UNIX. Yet, like anything prominent and well-aged, UNIX has its own set of myths, hatched through misunderstanding or design. Networking Means UNIX The global need for information access has given UNIX a special place in the computing world. UNIX grew up along with -- and, in fact, made possible -- its brother, the Internet, which is quickly becoming the de facto "Information Highway" that is captivating elected officials and captains of industry alike. UNIX is still the only operating environment that has at its very heart the concept of networking. Today, it also remains the only operating system to offer preemptive multitasking, advanced graphics, seamless file sharing, remote application execution, client-server program support, true multiuser access, and cross-platform compatibility in one package. More importantly, a generation of programmers was trained at the top universities on UNIX due to its initial academic roots. And while UNIX is the operating environment likely to enable the national "Information Highway," the hardware environment that will become part of this universal platform is clearly RISC. After all, in a world where the network is the computer, that computer must be powerful enough to deliver the capabilities corporate users need. RISC designs have continually led CISC in multiuser operating system performance. International Data Corp. predicts that worldwide UNIX unit shipments will move from just above 5,000,000 this year to more than 12,000,000 by 1997. According to InfoCorp., the overall UNIX market will reach more than $37 billion by the end of this year. This is the second year during which commercial UNIX growth outpaces the technical market. While both segments are displaying significant expansion, according to analysts, this statistic dispels one well-worn myth about UNIX: that it is only for engineers and scientists. UNIX is now benefitting from corporate "rightsizing" efforts and moving into the commercial mainstream. What are some other UNIX myths? A very old one that still persists is that UNIX is difficult to use. Today's UNIX systems include sophisticated user interfaces reflecting the latest thinking in graphical interface paradigms. The combination of well-integrated desktop management tools, pull-down menus, icons, mouse-driven commands, extensive help facilities and large monitors makes UNIX systems intuitive for the user. A parallel myth that most industry-aware users now ignore is that UNIX systems are expensive. For a few years now, UNIX desktops have offered more value than PC-class systems when similarly-equipped computers are compared. It is possible today to get a UNIX workstation -- with greater performance than a high-end PC, built-in networking, high-capacity disk, high-resolution monitor, true multitasking, an industrial-strength development environment and all the other ready-to-go features common with UNIX systems -- for less than $3,500. Another myth is that UNIX has few applications. The leading PC applications are all on UNIX, as are thousands of technical applications that will never make it to the PC platform. For a majority of software vendors today, the broad installed base -- and more importantly, the tremendous growth -- of UNIX systems makes porting to UNIX a standard check-off item for any application that must have large market penetration. The Paradigm Shift Competition, consolidation and the increasing demand from users for faster/cheaper/better performance have changed the complexion of computing. Single-tasking, single-user, 16-bit computing may comprise the majority of today's installed base, but that is not the platform upon which top vendors are staking their future. In this shake-out among computing solutions, yesterday's leaders -- like 3270, VMS, DOS, SNA, LanManager, DECnet and AppleShare -- are being slowly squeezed out or replaced. These changes underscore an undeniable, inexorable paradigm shift: information technology is moving toward client-server computing and away from single-user PC and costly mainframe, or host-based, solutions. In this shift, DOS and Windows are making way for NT; the `386/'486 for Pentium; the Macintosh for a yet-unnamed new operating environment on the RISC PowerPC architecture. The features that RISC/UNIX systems have had all along are now the goal for the volume personal computer vendors. But where does that leave today's PC owners? Unless their current PC has lots of memory and a `486 processor, they cannot upgrade to NT and have acceptable performance. Moreover, plugging these items into a fundamentally limited bus seems like questionable economy. Meanwhile, only some of the very newest PCs allow a user to snap out the old Intel processor and snap in Pentium. Millions of users have computing investments that have been made obsolete. When it comes to existing PC productivity software -- that designed for DOS and Windows -- it will run in the new NT environment. However, today's leading mission-critical business applications -- which run on UNIX -- do not run on NT. Worse yet, the current networking capabilities of NT are limited to small, simple workgroups. Since the network is not the computer with NT, adequate server support -- and any critical server applications -- are not available. Meanwhile, on the hardware side of the next-generation PC -- Pentium --PC application vendors are being asked to recompile their programs yet again to achieve performance gain. In addition, PC system vendors making the move to Pentium must redesign the cache, main memory and I/O subsystems on their `486 systems to get the promised performance improvements of Pentium. In addition, the widely reported overheating problems of this large CISC chip present further challenges to system designers, as does the high cost of the chip -- double many popular RISC chips -- which bumps up the overall selling price. To address these issues, smaller, cooler versions of this processor are on the drawing board. While the replacement of today's PC platform with NT and Pentium is nothing less than a revolution -- giving users a long-needed performance growth path -- these promising new technologies will not knock other solutions aside but will take their place among many powerful computing choices. According to International Data Corp., unit shipments of NT will reach 950,000 in 1996. However, annual UNIX shipments will expand to 2.9 million in the same year. The exciting technologies that will first appear on the desktop on RISC/UNIX systems -- distributed object technology, affordable imaging, full-function multimedia, multiprocessing, and distributed, network-aware applications -- will likely first become standards on these systems as well in the years to come. This creates a compellingly useful distributed computing solution that guarantees an ever-expanding market. Philosophical Differences The essence of the computing battle being fought in offices and on magazine pages today is not just about technology; it's about philosophy. While leading vendors are moving their computing paradigm from host-based, single-tasking, single-user schemes to client-server computing, the business model of the top PC vendors has not kept pace. Under this model, two vendors control, respectively, the two essential elements of the machine: the operating system and the microprocessor. That puts the entire buying audience -- from system vendors to users -- at the mercy of the technologies, rates of innovation, prices and supplies of these de facto monopolies. With open systems, however, there are many compatible options, letting users pick the one with the features, performance and price that is most appealing. UNIX was designed from the start as an open, extensible system. Since there are many different UNIX products available, vendors must continually innovate and improve value to attract buyers. This is the very model upon which most consumer markets operate. And given the scalability of UNIX -- it is the only operating system that runs on everything from laptops to supercomputers -- the safety and choices are broad, indeed. Perhaps the most significant event in the open systems movement took place this year, when most leading vendors of UNIX products -- such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Novell and others -- put plans in place to create the Common Open Software Environment (COSE). By agreeing on common specifications, the many UNIX products of these vendors will run with common APIs, look and feel and user interfaces across numerous platforms. A similar philosophy is behind Wabi, a new technology from SunSelect (a Sun Microsystems business) that is now being widely adopted. It allows UNIX systems to run the most popular Windows applications. Wabi is being made a part of some UNIX operating environments, such as Solaris. It gives corporate computing users a simple, inexpensive way of making the transition to UNIX client-server environments without abandoning those applications that don't already run under UNIX. The Crystal Ball While the PC is being reborn into a facsimile of a RISC/UNIX system, the UNIX world is not waiting for the others to catch up. UNIX continues to improve both incrementally and in quantum leaps with the introduction of new technologies, the increased acceptance of the open systems approach and industry standards, and the development of practical new applications for a wide range of worldwide commercial markets. First, it's clear that the UNIX world will continue to provide technological leadership for high-speed, time-critical, cross-platform networking. UNIX vendors are investing heavily in emerging technologies that promise to increase the performance and functionality of LAN/WAN interconnections while reducing costs. On the desktop, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) offers performance for the near term, but its limited upper range of speed and higher cost will limit it to certain high-end applications and to certain niches where flexibility and robustness are required. Its market share should peak by the mid-'90s. Meanwhile, the 10/100 Mb/sec. Ethernet -- called Fast Ethernet -- will be an excellent low-priced alternative for existing applications. It has the advantage of compatibility with current and future Ethernet devices; it offers the capability of automatically detecting whether to run at 10 or 100 Mb/sec. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) is another promising technology. ISDN will bring about a fundamental change that will greatly benefit users: the telephone company will route users' digital data to its destination, just like an analog voice message is routed today. No longer will users have to rent expensive lines to transmit this data, which will lead to a new, bandwidth-on-demand model of usage and lower costs for network data transmission. ISDN is already being built into high-volume RISC/UNIX workstation platforms. Perhaps the best LAN solution for workstation networking for the rest of the century and beyond is Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). It has no speed or throughput barriers; it is scalable from 51 MB/sec. to more than 2.4 GB/sec and was designed for delivering time-critical data to applications. Its only initial barrier will be cost, but judging from recent industry acceptance and the rate of product introductions, costs should very quickly become very reasonable because the volume of ATM products will be so high. Public carriers are planning to offer ATM services as a high-end piece of their broadband networking strategy. There is no protocol difference between an ATM switch in the office used for a LAN and the ATM switch used in a central office. The boundary between LAN and WAN could become a matter of speed and cost -- not a technical barrier -- leading to the WAN ending at the UNIX desktop. Also, this large deployment will mean that per-chip hardware costs should become nominal over time. RISC/UNIX platforms will also continue to expedite the transition from mainframes to "rightsized" environments and foster the development of reliable, easy-to-use client-server computing solutions. Why? Simply put, RISC/UNIX computers now have the raw horsepower to enable peer-to-peer communication between clients and servers. What that means is that it is now technologically feasible for clients and servers to communicate an equal amount of data to one another. The master/slave relationship of mainframes to clients can now be replaced by an environment where servers can manage shared data and expensive peripherals, and clients can manage individual data and inexpensive, personal peripherals. This dramatically reduces costs and increases efficiency compared to mainframe environments. And with the growing acceptance of rightsizing as a paradigm, we are already seeing the influx of high-quality applications that are specifically designed to take advantage of rightsized environments. But what is really exciting about the future of UNIX is not the incremental technological innovation we expect, but the creation of new products based on combinations of these technologies -- products that can truly reinvent the way people work and the way businesses define productivity. Video conferencing products are an excellent example. Previously, the UNIX network was powerful enough to allow workstation users to work interactively with "shared whiteboards." Users could communicate with each other interactively -- in real time -- sharing not only text messages but also graphics, images, free-hand drawings, or spreadsheets over a network with other computer users. Today, with the enhancements to UNIX and networking media, RISC/UNIX vendors are adding video, audio, and application-sharing features to the shared whiteboard facility. As a result, individuals and workgroups can now collaborate interactively, in real time, using a full range of video, audio, and screen-sharing tools. Another glance into the crystal ball shows how inseparable open RISC/UNIX platforms will be from object-oriented technology. Clearly, the next generation of development technology will rely heavily on object-oriented programming, which allows developers to mix and match "objects" (complete and reusable pieces of data or applications) to quickly create new applications. But it is not just object technology that will cause a huge impact, it is the proliferation of distributed object-oriented environments. Currently being standardized by many leading UNIX vendors, this technology will not only greatly simplify programming, but will spur the creation of distributed applications, which are applications designed so that components run on different -- but cooperating -- systems on a network. Finally, RISC/UNIX systems will be the main vehicle for yet another important technology that will improve user productivity. It is multiprocessing, which offers a low-cost performance growth path. The few multiprocessor RISC/UNIX systems that are on the market today demonstrate that it is possible to maximize a basic computer investment to unheard-of levels simply by increasing the number of processors or adding more powerful processors to a modular system. Multiprocessing will succeed in a huge way because it is enabling technology for the largest, most complex, and most critical business applications: enormous databases that used to consume the processing power of mainframes. Not only is the network still the computer, the computing capabilities now being made possible by RISC/UNIX systems are eliminating the time, distance and compatibility barriers of users on the network. In the future, they can use this technology to fundamentally change the way they work. ### Dr. Eric Schmidt is president of Sun Technology Enterprises, an operating company of Sun Microsystems, Inc., that contains several businesses developing software, hardware and related technologies that enhance the Sun RISC/UNIX platform. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59.15.B Subject: *6* Sun Solutions Announcement (* removed -- this was basically the same as the SunSolutions Press Release posted as SunFlash 58.25 "SunSolutions Introduces ShowMe 2.0" - johnj *) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59.15.C Subject: Sunergy Sign-up Form If you are not already a member of Sunergy and would like to join, simply fill out and return this form. --------------------------------cut here---------------------------------- *****SUNERGY SIGN-UP FORM***** NAME:__________________________________________________________ Title:__________________________________________________________ COMPANY:__________________________________________________________ ADDRESS:__________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ CITY:__________________ STATE:_______ ZIP/POSTAL CODE__________ COUNTRY:___________________________ PHONE:___________________________ FAX:_________________________ **E-MAIL:___________________________ RETURN COMPLETED FORM TO: sunergy@sun.com 415/336-5847 **An e-mail address is mandatory for enrollment in Sunergy, as Sunergy information is distributed on an electronic basis only. ======================================================================== (c) 1992 Sun Microsystems, Inc. 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