From: Jan Tarzia <j...@sco.COM>
Subject: Release: SCO Charts Course...
Date: 1995/12/07
Message-ID: <9512061700.aa11421@srv400a.sco.com>
X-Deja-AN: 121471587
sender: ed...@xenitec.on.ca (Ed Hew)
organization: XeniTec Consulting Services, Kitchener, ON, Canada
followup-to: comp.unix.sco.misc
newsgroups: comp.unix.sco.announce
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Monika Laud
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
TEL: 408/427-7421
FAX: 408/427-5448
SCO CHARTS COURSE TO MERGED UNIX SYSTEM
"Gemini" Will Merge SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare Technologies
SANTA CRUZ, CA (December 6, 1995) -- The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
(NASDAQ:SCOC) has revealed further details of the course it will take in
creating a merged UNIX System code-named "Gemini," expected to ship in
1997.
According to Mike Shelton, SCO's director of product marketing,
"Developers can create a single application today that will run on all
three platforms: SCO OpenServer, SCO UnixWare, and the forthcoming
Gemini."
The Future of UNIX
SCO's recent acquisition of the UNIX business from Novell paves the way
for SCO to integrate SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare systems with Novell
NetWare file, print, and directory services, plus other emerging
technologies, in order to provide customers with a pervasive, standard
UNIX system. In addition, the business relationships announced between
HP, Novell, and SCO will drive the creation of a 64-bit operating system
using a standard 64-bit UNIX API for the next-generation Intel
processor, ensuring the development of a high-quality, industry-standard
system for enterprise application servers and network services into the
future.
Gemini - The Merged UNIX System
SCO's Gemini project will create a unified environment that integrates
the best capabilities of both SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare systems.
It will take best-of-breed technologies from each, add emerging
technologies, and integrate them into a single, scalable UNIX System for
businesses of all sizes. Gemini will include key networking services
from Novell that will be in the next release of the UnixWare system. It
will also contain support for new hardware technologies and new features
to address the needs of customers in the areas of high availability,
systems management, interoperability, performance, and scalability.
Benefits to Developers, ISVs, and IHVs
Gemini will enable SCO developers, ISVs, and IHVs to lower development
and maintenance costs, increase market penetration, and add value to
their products. Gemini will help them reduce their application porting
and testing efforts and costs, shorten their time to market, reduce
their ongoing support and maintenance, and enable them to apply a single
optimization effort to multiple platforms.
In addition, they will gain access to more channels for distributing
their products and be able to take advantage of enterprise sales
opportunities created by the various OEM sales forces. By taking full
advantage of Gemini's scalability they can improve the price/performance
and scalability features of their own products, as well as the new high-
performance hardware peripherals supported by Gemini, and get a head
start on building applications for the 64-bit UNIX System that will be
developed by SCO and HP for the nextgeneration Intel processors.
On the Road to Gemini - "Eiger," "Comet," and the Compatibility Toolkit
"Eiger" (next release of SCO UnixWare), "Comet" (next release of SCO
OpenServer), and the Compatibility Toolkit are milestones along the road
to Gemini _ interim releases that will continue to support and enhance
SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare systems. One of the key features of
these enhanced releases will be to provide binary compatibility between
the two platforms. Each of these new releases adds other new features
to their respective predecessors,
features which extend their market-leading performance and scalability,
while increasing their reliability, availability, and serviceability.
Following Eiger and Comet, SCO will release a Compatibility Toolkit,
which developers can use to run a single version of their applications
on both SCO UnixWare and SCO OpenServer systems. The Compatibility
Toolkit will also serve as a development toolkit for Gemini.
EIGER - The Next Release of SCO UnixWare
SCO will continue to offer UnixWare source code to existing and new OEM
licensees worldwide. Existing Certified Novell Engineers (CNEs) for
UnixWare are fully certified to support UnixWare products from SCO.
Eiger will increase SCO UnixWare integration with PC clients via support
for NetWare 4 services. This will enable an SCO UnixWare server to
provide basic Novell NetWare file, print, and directory services to
Windows clients without the need for a separate Novell NetWare server.
Eiger will also act as an application server for NDSaware applications
and a communications gateway to NetWare Connect Service for wide-area
networking. Eiger is expected to ship in the first quarter of 1996.
Eiger will also include any previously shipped UnixWare updates.
COMET - The Next Release of SCO OpenServer System
Comet is being designed to meet two major requirements: first, to
provide SCO customers with additional reliability, availability,
scalability, and serviceability features to further improve on the
performance and quality of business critical computing available on the
SCO OpenServer platform; second, to provide customers and application
developers with the ability to easily evolve their SCO OpenServer
solutions to Gemini. This means that Comet will provide greater
compatibility with SCO UnixWare applications. Comet will include all of
the features and functions of SCO OpenServer Release 5, plus new
features that address the requirements of highperformance servers,
Windows client integration, and business critical applications.
The Compatibility Toolkit
SCO is in the process of creating a set of developer tools that provide
an environment to create applications for Gemini. This environment will
enable them to create the same application for
existing SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare platforms. The Compatability
Toolkit will include tools to identify interfaces used in an application
that might require changes with Gemini. It will include a set of
migration documents that illustrate the differences between Gemini and
the SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare environments, especially regarding
new features and interfaces. It will include an Advanced Hardware
Development Kit for hardware vendors to create drivers for Gemini and
enable those drivers to be made available for the Eiger and Comet
releases. It will include a complete development environment to build,
debug, and test applications that take full advantage of new features in
the Gemini release. And it will enable developers to create a single
application that is binary compatible on all three SCO platforms: Eiger,
Comet, and Gemini. The Gemini development environment will include a
UNIX 95 (spec 1170) compliant API set.
About SCO
SCO is the world's leading supplier of UNIX server and host systems, and
a leading provider of client-integration software that integrates
Windows PCs and other clients with UNIX servers from all major vendors.
SCO Business Critical Servers run the critical, dayto-day operations of
large branch organizations in retail, finance, telecom, and government,
as well as corporate departments and small to medium-sized businesses of
every kind. SCO sells and supports its products through a worldwide
network of distributors, resellers, systems integrators, and OEMs. For
additional corporate and product information, see SCO's home page on the
World Wide Web: http//www.sco.com.
# # #
SCO, The Santa Cruz Operation, the SCO logo, SCO OpenServer, and
UnixWare are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Santa Cruz
Operation, Inc. in the USA and other countries. NetWare is a registered
trademark of Novell, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the US and
other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited.
All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of, and are
used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.
_
INDUSTRY PARTNER ENDORSEMENTS
CCS
"We support SCO's acquisition of Novell's Unix business. Individually
the products are very strong in different areas. Combined they are very
complementary. The whole is much better than the sum of the parts,"
said Dan McCormick, president of CCS Computer Systems, Inc. (CCS) "We
have had an opportunity to work with Novell LANs and SCO Unix since
1982. We have also worked with Netcon, SCO SPX/IPX, and other
interconnect technologies. We see the SCO acquisition as providing CCS
with an expanded opportunity in an expanded market that we are well
prepared to address."
Press contact: Dan McCormick, 206-672-4806
Informix
"Informix and SCO have shared a strong commitment to Unix for a number
of years," said Kathy Gogan, vice president, channel and partnering
marketing, Informix. "We will continue that commitment by continuing to
provide future versions of our high-performance database server,
INFORMIXOnLine Dynamic Server for UnixWare, and our new departmental and
workgroup server, INFORMIX-OnLine Workgroup Server for SCO's OpenServer.
Providing our products on both UnixWare and OpenServer is a critical
component in further fulfilling our customers' open system computing
needs."
Press contact: Cecilia Denny, 415-926-6420
Olivetti
This agreement is in line with Olivetti's standing commitment to the
SVR4 customer base," stated Fabrizio Gimona, senior vice president of
Olivetti's Systems and Services Division. "Customers will benefit from
the creation of a single technology stream that represents a market
leading, standard Unix base for Intel-based platforms. Olivetti is
reinforcing its partnership with SCO, and will further enhance its Unix
offering with advanced middleware, application solutions and system
integration services."
Press contact: Gianfranco Enrico, 39-125-52-8858
Oracle
"Oracle supports SCO's acquisition of Novell's Unix business and looks
forward to the integration and availability of SCO OpenServer with
UnixWare," said Richard French, vice president of Oracle's Intel Unix
Products Division. "With the additional integration of NetWare services
and this highly scalable Unix operating system, we see unprecedented
power with Oracle for the workgroup, branch office and highend
enterprise."
Press contact: Richard French, 415-506-8712
Progress
"Progress Software, as a leading developer of application development
and database software, applauds the expanded role SCO is taking in the
Unix market," commented Joseph Alsop, Progress Software president. "Now
we can concentrate our investment in developing application development
tools that deliver strategic business benefits to our customers more
quickly and efficiently rather than diverting our resources on the
development of porting releases."
Press contact: Liza Hayman, 617-280-4697
_
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Jan Tarzia j...@sco.com
SCO Public Relations (408)427-7221
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