IBM'S OS/390 Operating System Achieves UNIX 95 Brand

Fishkill, New York, September 30, 1996 . . . With a platform once thought of as proprietary, IBM System/390* Division today announced that it has achieved advanced open systems branding for OS/390* [ http://www.s390.ibm.com/os390/ ] -- its strategic large server operating system. This achievement further illustrates IBM's ongoing commitment to computing in an open environment.

Having achieved XPG4 UNIX** 95 Profile Brand (UNIX 95) certification, OS/390 now provides customers with full UNIX capabilities built directly into the operating system. This is a critical differentiator from competing systems because only OS/390 can provide UNIX facilities in tandem with those S/390 "classic strengths" (i.e., continuous availability, reliability, security, scalability) which businesses have come to rely on.

In fact, OS/390 is the IT industry's first large server operating system to achieve this level of UNIX certification.

With UNIX 95 certification, OS/390 customers are now provided with increased flexibility and more software options than ever before. For example, UNIX code can now more readily be accessed from a variety of Internet sources for quick and seamless deployment on OS/390.

OS/390's UNIX 95 brand certification was awarded by X/Open Company, Ltd. [ http://www.xopen.org/public/prods/xu005.htm ] and confirms that the operating system is compliant with all current open industry standards. X/Open Company, Ltd. is a part of the Open Group, a highly-regarded UNIX standards organization focused on the advancement of open computing.

"UNIX 95 Brand gives S/390 customers the best of both worlds," said Linda Sanford, general manager, IBM S/390 Division. "Businesses can now have the openness of UNIX combined with the classic strengths of System/390 in one operating system. No one else can match our strengths in this area."

"The award of the brand to IBM's OS/390 for conformance to the UNIX 95 specification, recognizes significant achievement by IBM in extending the range of open systems products available to large server customers," said Dr. James Bell, president and chief executive officer, The Open Group. "The steadily increasing variety of systems meeting the UNIX 95 branding requirements is fueling the continued rapid growth of the UNIX market."

"Our future direction is to tie our UNIX servers and workstations with our IBM Parallel Enterprise Server," said Frank Pansino, manager, Data Center and Technical Services, Cotton States Mutual Insurance Company. "UNIX 95 branding of OS/390 will provide us with an important tool for the integration of these two platforms."

In order to achieve XPG4 UNIX 95 Profile Brand certification, IBM had to run 25,000 X/Open tests on OS/390 Release 2 code and pass every aspect of the evaluation. Delivery of OS/390 Release 2 will begin October 1996.

* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.

** UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited.