Philips Newest Sponsor For Open Software Foundation

LAWRENCE, Mass., June 29, 1988 -- PRNewswire -- The Open Software Foundation (OSF) announced today that Philips of The Netherlands has joined as a sponsoring member. As a sponsoring member, Philips will have a seat on the board of directors.

The Open Software Foundation (OSF) is a non-profit, industry- supported foundation recently formed to develop an open software environment based on UNIX(a) operating system technology. OSF said this open software environment will make it easier for computer hardware and software platforms to work together. This synergy is critical because most corporate and industrial users today work in distributed computing environments based upon a mix of equipment from multiple vendors.

The OSF environment will include a new operating system, compatible with current NBS, X/Open, X Consortium and IEEE UNIX-related standards, as well as application interfaces and advanced system extensions. In addition, OSF will fund an independent future-systems research institute, and will work closely with industry standards bodies to assure specifications-consistency in future OSF products.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome Philips as a sponsor," noted Henry Crouse, president of OSF. "As a leading member of the European computer industry and a long-term proponent of the open-software concept as evidenced by its early commitment to UNIX, Philips is a critical addition to our list of major industry supporters."

Philips has been committed to the UNIX world since 1983, and has played a leading role in promoting UNIX in different activities, such as the X/Open consortium," says Dr. G. Bindels, senior managing director at Philips. "Consequently, we appreciate the initiative of the Open Software Foundation, and we are committed to its support and sponsorship."

In addition to sponsoring corporations, which pledge major financial and technical resources to the foundation, OSF offers active-participation memberships to corporations, government agencies and academic institutions worldwide. Membership fees range from $5,000 to $25,000 per year; members get numerous technical benefits and services relating to new-product participation, including early and equal access to all new development activities.

Philips is an international leader in information and communications technology. It is the largest electronics company in Europe, the fifth largest computer vendor, and the third largest in number of customer installations of PABXs, modems, and other communications equipment.

The Open Software Foundation is incorporated as a non-profit, industry-supported research, development and software-manufacturing organization. It is committed to portabilty, interoperability and scalability of computer software.

In addition to Philips, OSF sponsors are Apollo Computer, Groupe Bull, Digital Equipment, Hewlitt-Packard, IBM, Nixdorf and Siemens. Initial funding, providing by the OSF sponsors, is more than $100 million.

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(a) UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.

/CONTACT: Gary McCormack of the Open Software Foundation, 617-683-6803; or Janice Brown, 617-642-5907, or 617-965-1846 (after 6 p.m.), or Lisa Leonard, 617-642-5918, both of Hill and Knowlton/ Advanced Technology Division, for OSF/