AIX - Learn more about the future of IBM's Enterprise UNIX

August 11, 2000

The next generation of AIX -- AIX 5L -- takes AIX to the next level with advanced technology, a strong Linux affinity and added support for IBM's Power and Intel's future IA-64 processor-based platforms, making it the most open UNIX operating system in the industry. AIX 5L demonstrates the success of the Project Monterey initiative, incorporating technology from the world's leading software and hardware providers, giving customers the business flexibility and performance they need for e-business.

With AIX as a critical component powering the highly successful IBM S80 server, IBM's UNIX road map has never been stronger. In fact, IBM Web servers saw a 30 percent growth in our last quarter. AIX technology will help contribute to the success of the future systems running AIX 5L on Power and IA-64. AIX 5L is expected to be released this fall.

D.H.Brown and Associates, a highly respected industry consultancy, rated AIX as the industry's leading UNIX operating system for the sixth straight year. AIX outperformed fourth-ranked Sun's Solaris operating system in key areas, such as Web application functionality and systems management. Sun's strategy contrasts with IBM's commitment to make AIX the industry's open mission-critical UNIX operating system.

AIX 5L offers customers advanced technologies

IBM has worked with a number of companies to provide best of breed technology for AIX 5L. Industry contributions include key technologies from IBM DYNIX/ptx, multi-path I/O and NUMA, and from SCO UnixWare, UNIX System 5 standard technologies. Bull continues to contribute development expertise in areas such as scalability and workload management.

All of these efforts are paying off. Soon customers will be able to avail themselves of the added benefits of AIX 5L. AIX 5L Version 5.0 will offer customers an improved Workload Manager (WLM) with the ability to manage disk I/O, in addition to CPU and memory, a capability not offered in Sun Solaris. This will help enable IT managers to give priority to Web-serving applications and resources, while making unused capacity available for other Web-serving tasks. AIX 5L also will offer Java 2 Version 1.3 support with expected availability ahead of Solaris. TCP/IP enhancements, offering improved network performance and reliability, also will be included. Among the UNIX System 5 technologies to be incorporated in this release is the SVR4 printing subsystem providing industry-standard print administration and drivers.

Customers Will Benefit from Linux Affinity

IBM also is working to provide strong Linux affinity with AIX 5L. This will enable faster and less costly deployment of multi-platform, integrated solutions across AIX and Linux platforms.

Many applications developed on and for Linux can run on AIX 5L with a simple recompilation of the source code, allowing customers to combine Linux applications with the advanced scalability and availability features of AIX. This Linux affinity in AIX enhances the customer's ability to adapt to changes in their business and technology.

Linux affinity on AIX includes Linux application source compatibility, compliance with emerging Linux standards, and a GNU/Linux build-time environment with tools and utilities that combine to facilitate the development and deployment of Linux applications on AIX 5L. Linux affinity also includes AIX/Linux interoperability verification and will benefit customers looking to use Linux for front-end Web serving and AIX 5L for transaction and data management.

Software, Hardware Providers Working with AIX 5L Beta Code

Software providers are building applications with the current beta release of AIX 5L for the future Intel IA-64 platform. Tool and middleware providers, including Cygnus Solutions, EPC, Geodesic, IBM, Merant, Parasoft and Roguewave, are working with preproduction systems to create tools and middleware to build applications. Other software providers are using these tools to build solutions that range from e-business and supply chain management to enterprise resource planning and business intelligence. Hardware providers, including Unisys and Bull, are working with AIX 5L beta code on IA-64 to ensure that the operating system runs properly on their systems. Bull recently announced it has successfully run AIX 5L on IA-64 on an eight-way Intel Itanium processor-based server, achieving an industry first.

AIX 5L, the next generation of AIX, will continue to offer customers an industrial strength operating environment, with Linux affinity, offering choice and flexibility for customers' needs while leveraging current investments.

IBM and AIX are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of the Open Group. All other companies and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective providers.