Significant Support from SCO, Sequent, Intel and OEMs
Somers, N.Y., October 26, 1998 . . . IBM today announced a major UNIX operating system initiative with a number of industry partners. This initiative will create a high-volume platform that will expand business opportunities for ISVs and OEMs.
As part of this initiative, a UNIX operating system will be developed for Intel's IA-64 using IBM's AIX operating system enterprise capabilities complemented with technology from SCO's UnixWare and Sequent's PTX operating system. IBM will also transfer AIX technology to SCO's UnixWare and promote the offering in the UNIX on IA-32 market. The result will be a single UNIX operating system product line that runs on IA-32, IA-64 and IBM microprocessors, in computers that range from entry-level to large enterprise servers.
IBM will make significant investments to make this the leading UNIX operating system. IBM's investments will be directed at: porting IBM's middleware portfolio; operating system development to exploit Intel IA-32 and IA-64 and IBM's Power architecture; and investments in technical and marketing support for ISVs.
Intel is providing substantive technical and marketing support to make this operating
system the leading UNIX for Intel platforms. IBM and Intel are creating a multi-million
dollar ISV fund for this UNIX. This will help software companies deliver middleware
tools and application programs for this UNIX environment.
In support of this initiative, IBM has forged alliances with SCO and Sequent, and
has gained support from leading OEMs and ISVs.
SCO, the market share volume leader of UNIX operating systems, and IBM will collaborate to accelerate enhancements to SCO's UnixWare product for IA-32. Also, SCO and IBM will work together to co-develop and market this UNIX for the IA-64 based market.
Sequent, the leading provider of high-end, Intel-based UNIX systems, will be a co-developer, contributing its cc:NUMA technology and Intel architecture expertise.
"The combination of IBM's enterprise expertise and software, SCO's shrink-wrap
UNIX expertise and channels, Sequent's system expertise on IA, and the price-performance
benefits of Intel architecture will make this a high-volume UNIX leader," said John
Miner, vice president and general manager of Intel's enterprise server group. "Intel
strongly supports this software initiative, and will work with IBM and SCO to make
this the first UNIX port for all computer manufacturers and software developers."
"We're extending into broader markets with our award-winning AIX software that delivers
the reliability and security required of an enterprise-class operating system,"
said Bob Stephenson, senior vice president, IBM Server Group. "Working with these
companies, we're capitalizing on the base of proven leadership technologies to deliver
the world's best UNIX on Power microprocessor and high-volume Intel microprocessor
systems."
"SCO is delighted to be at the heart of this major announcement," said Doug Michels,
SCO's CEO. "It's a great opportunity to take SCO's products to a new range of enterprise
customers. Customers can now deploy major applications on both 32-bit and 64-bit
technology, with the volume economics of a reliable, scaleable UNIX-on-Intel. We
see this collaboration with IBM -- the company that invented enterprise computing
-- and Intel, as a major benefit for our customers, OEM partners, and ISVs."
"Sequent is committed to delivering our customers the industry's leading UNIX for
IA-64 with the introduction of Merced-based systems. The AIX partnership provides
the clear choice, combining proven technology, tremendous resources and unprecedented
industry support," said Casey Powell, chairman and CEO of Sequent.
A number of computer systems manufacturers announced their plans to use the new
UNIX software. They include Acer, CETIA-a subsidiary of Thomson-CSF, Groupe Bull,
ICL, Motorola Computer Group, and Unisys Computer Systems.
Leading software companies announced their support for the new UNIX software. They
include BEA Systems, Data Pro Accounting Software, Informix, Infospace, Micro Focus,
Netscape, Novell, Pick Systems, Progress Software, Real World, Risk Management Technology,
Software AG, and TakeFive.
IBM also announced it will deliver its software products, such as the DB2 database
program, on the SCO UnixWare software.
(Note to editor: Please see accompanying "What People are Saying" for individual
company statements.)
Additional information on today's announcements can be found on the Internet at
http://www.ibm.com/servers/monterey.
# # #
What People are Saying About IBM's UNIX Initiative
ISV Support
BEA Systems, Inc.
Gail Ennis, Vice President of Mission-Critical Enterprise Solutions
"As partners of IBM, Intel, SCO, and Sequent, BEA is pleased to see a convergence
and advancement of UNIX, the backbone for many new distributed mission-critical
enterprise solutions. We are pleased to see the investment being made to accelerate
the delivery of software solutions on this new UNIX operating system family. BEA
believes these efforts, combined with our industry-leading middleware, provides
customers with a powerful, open, mission-critical solution."
Data Pro Accounting Software, Inc.
Scott Fenimore, Executive Vice President
"We find this announcement extremely exciting as it continues to confirm SCO as
the true leader in UNIX systems on the Intel platform, both today and in the future.
The majority of our UNIX system customers use SCO products, and we see that trend
continuing with this new announcement. This also provides a huge opportunity for
us to expand into the AIX market."
IBM Software Solutions
Steve Mills, General Manager
"We're in the business of serving customers. Customers can choose operating systems
and systems platforms based on their needs, and we'll guarantee the integrity of
their data and transactions with our enterprise-proven middleware. Every software
offering we deliver on UnixWare 7 -- from the database and transaction manager to
the messaging system and application servers -- will be enterprise class."
Informix
Diane Fraiman, Vice President of Marketing
"We are excited about the opportunity this collaborative effort on UNIX brings to
Informix customers. In teaming up with Intel, SCO, IBM and our other partners, Informix
is in an ideal position to deliver high performance and scalable OLTP and data warehousing
solutions on this new UNIX software. The partners involved represent a significant
portion of Informix's business. As such, the performance tuning and enhancements
we offer across the partners' operating systems are brought together into a very
high performance, easily maintainable environment bringing direct benefits to our
customers."
Infospace, Inc.
Joe Thomas, Director, Strategic Alliances
"Infospace Inc. has always viewed support for the IBM AIX family as critical for
supporting our Global 1000 customer base. We view the combination of technology
from IBM, Intel and SCO into IA-64 as offering a new, and sizable, business opportunity
for us and our customers. We will most certainly develop our software to support
this given the significant volumes that this represents."
Micro Focus
Marian Sichel, Vice President of Product Management
"We believe that our customers will welcome this announcement of UNIX on the Intel
architecture. The combination of an operating system with proven performance and
the Intel high volume platform minimizes risk while allowing customers to take advantage
of new technologies."
Netscape
John M. Paul
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Server Products Division
"Netscape supports this IBM, SCO, Intel and Sequent collaboration to deliver a standard
version of the UNIX operating system that extends the power and scalability of UNIX
to Netscape's Enterprise Service Provider customers who are running Intel and Power
chip computers.
The new UNIX operating system will enable Netscape, working with IBM and SCO, to
get our new software applications to market faster by eliminating the need to build
separate versions for each UNIX variant."
Novell, Inc.
Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO
"The combined initiative of UNIX leaders like SCO and IBM, with the support of Intel,
is a positive development for both developers and end users who are looking forward
to the performance advantages of 64-bit architectures. The resulting products will
provide a broad and robust platform for network and directory applications optimized
to take advantage of next-generation hardware."
Pick Systems
Ted Ellison, Vice President of Marketing
"Pick Systems strongly supports the new IA-64 platform. Currently, our leading development
platforms are AIX and SCO. Now with the new unified UNIX platform, we will greatly
improve our time to market by delivering product running on the RS/6000 product
family in addition to Intel platforms. We expect that many application vendors will
join Pick Systems in establishing this UNIX as the industry's leading development
platform."
Progress Software Corporation
Dave Ireland, Vice President, Core Products and Services
"For Progress and our 2,300 ISV partners who sell Progress based applications, this
announcement is great news. This major step toward consolidation of UNIX will greatly
improve the economics of bringing our world class applications to the marketplace."
Rational
Eric Schurr, Vice President of Marketing
"Built on top of operating systems with proven performance and aimed at the Intel
high volume opportunity, we believe application vendors will quickly establish this
UNIX operating system as a leading development platform for the software industry.
We are enthusiastic about the agreement because it will allow developers a common
set of tools that will simplify and decrease the cost of application development."
Real World
Kurt A. Mueffelman, President
"The new relationships among SCO, IBM, and Intel will bring great benefits both
to us as SCO's largest accounting solution provider and as an IBM e-Business partner.
As a company, we get to benefit from writing one version of our RealWorld Classic
Accounting software and RealWorld Expertise software that runs on a tremendously
robust UNIX operating system on both Intel and IBM platforms. Our hundreds of thousands
of users benefit by knowing that RealWorld's technology direction is supported by
an industry giant such as Intel, which is supporting SCO's UnixWare as a standard,
and that IBM is supporting these efforts to support small- to medium-sized businesses."
Risk Management Technology
Jefferson Braswell, Chief Technology Officer
"Having a consistent and commercially supported UNIX operating system that spans
both Intel and Power chip technologies opens up sizable new business opportunities
for our products at very low re-investment and porting costs. We are glad that IBM,
Intel and SCO have taken this step to combine their leading technologies into a
UNIX family of operating systems."
Software AG
Rogers Randall, Director of Platform Technologies
"We expect Project Monterey to have significant impact in the operating system arena.
With two strong parents like IBM and SCO, who represent expertise in enterprise
computing on the one hand, and experience on the Intel platform and market leadership
on the other, Project Monterey is certain to accelerate the consolidation in the
Open Systems marketplace. We are equally impressed with the generous assistance
the two companies are offering ISV's to make this joint venture a success. Software
AG intends to address this platform."
TakeFive
Mark Pittman, Vice President of Marketing
"The alliance between IBM, Intel and SCO benefits UNIX developers by promoting standardization
for UNIX-on-Intel, which simplifies development and drives higher volumes. TakeFive's
Source Code Engineering solution, SNiFF+, provides UnixWare and AIX developers with
a powerful, integrated source code comprehension tool that enables them to quickly
understand, develop and manage large, complex software systems."
OEM Support
Acer America Corporation
Max Wu, President
"Acer is impressed by the commitment of SCO, IBM and Intel to make UnixWare 7 the
leading UNIX contender in IA-32 environments. Providing a common OS platform for
Intel's forthcoming IA-64 processor energizes the industry. For Acer, we see it
as a viable long-term platform for our focus on solutions for small businesses.
There are no losers in this equation: customers, ISVs, partners and suppliers all
stand to realize significant benefits."
CETIA (a subsidiary of Thomson-CSF)
Yvon Peresse, Chairman and CEO
"CETIA welcomes the Monterey project. We are pleased to see the number of ISVs committed
to Monterey. Many of our customers will make Monterey the UNIX of choice in the
development of their applications on our PowerPC Single Board Computer platforms."
Groupe Bull
Didier Breton, President Server Division
"As a key technology contributor to AIX-on-Power servers, Bull will also embrace
the Uni0x-on-Intel plan to provide additional value and choice for our customers.
We will leverage our extensive AIX expertise to accelerate our growth by entering
the high volume Unix-on-Intel platform markets."
IBM Netfinity
John Callies, Vice President of Marketing, Nefinity, IBM
"Enterprise customers have been asking for an industry-standard version of UNIX.
Customers want IBM to take a leadership role. This new initiative is a big step
in that direction and Netfinity plans to fully support this new industry standard
UNIX."
ICL
Peter Slavid, Business Strategy Manager, High Performance Systems
"ICL welcomes this initiative which we believe will increase the market success
of UNIX-on-Intel. This initiative between IBM, SCO and Intel to actively support
Unixware7 and UNIX on IA-64 will increase volumes and hence increase ISV support
which is good for all of us. We would expect everyone to applaud this initiative
to reduce the number of UNIX variants, and we believe that this plan will deliver
us a strong, robust, and market-leading product for the Intel IA-64 market."
Motorola Computer Group
Wayne Sennett, Corporate Vice President and General Manager
"Motorola Computer Group is encouraged by this announcement as we see this as a
positive step towards lessening compatibility issues among UNIX variants. We foresee
this move as an opportunity to enhance the expansion of UnixWare and AIX by ISVs."
Unisys Computer Systems
Fred Ruessli, Group Vice President Worldwide Marketing
"Unisys welcomes the partnership between Intel, IBM and SCO and favors the creation
of Project Monterey. The resulting UNIX System will clearly gain value through the
contribution of each of the partners and the large number of committed ISVs delivering
a significant benefit to the Unisys UNIX customer base."
Reseller Support
Pioneer-Standard
Bob Bailey, Senior Vice President
"We anticipate great customer interest and new business opportunities from the development
of a consistent and supported UNIX operating system. The combination of leading
technologies from IBM, Intel, SCO and Sequent into a high-performance IA-64 solution
will quickly establish it as a leading UNIX operating system."
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