Item 2511134 93/06/15 16:11 From: CONRAD_GEIGER@NEXT.COM@INET# Internet Gateway Subject: NEXTSTEP for Intel is Shipping News: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Karen Logsdon NeXT Computer, Inc. 415/780-3786 or Marilyn Kilinski Ketchum Public Relations 212/536-8865 NEXTSTEP FOR INTEL IS SHIPPING: PROVIDES POWERFUL SOFTWARE FOR INDUSTRY- STANDARD COMPUTERS SAN FRANCISCO, CA - June 15, 1993 - While the rest of the industry is still thinking about objects, NeXT Computer, Inc. is shipping them and enabling its customers to create enterprise-wide computing solutions. The company's software, NEXTSTEP Release 3.1 for Intel processors and NEXTSTEP Developer which began shipping May 25, is designed for users to take advantage of object- oriented application development in client/server environments. NEXTSTEP Release 3.1 for Intel processors is NeXT's object-oriented software that runs on industry-standard Intel 486- and Pentium-based PCs. NEXTSTEP Developer provides visual application construction tools and reusable application objects for the development of NEXTSTEP applications. NEXTSTEP has received customer and industry accolades for speeding the development of client/server applications. NeXT users can purchase PCs with NEXTSTEP preinstalled from a number of leading PC manufacturers, value-added resellers, system integrators and resellers. Users may also purchase shrink-wrapped copies of NEXTSTEP through value-added resellers, system integrators, software resellers and directly from NeXT. Object-oriented productivity for the enterprise "We now offer complete enterprise-wide, object-oriented solutions on a range of industry-standard PCs, from desktops to notebooks," said Steven P. Jobs, chairman and CEO of NeXT. "Working together with our industry partners, NeXT provides the software and reusable objects that allow our customers to rightsize their business applications to a client/server environment, while gaining two to five times the productivity of other approaches." NEXTSTEP is the most advanced object-oriented software available today and is used to develop and deploy custom applications comprising custom and off-the- self software. Its integrated user interface allows all applications to seamlessly interoperate and share a common graphical user interface. It also enables corporate customers to continue to take advantage of their existing applications and data while simultaneously gaining all the productivity and technical benefits of custom NEXTSTEP applications. "No development environment anywhere matches the power of NEXTSTEP for Intel processors," said Ingvar Petursson, chief information officer at McCaw Cellular Communications, a NEXTSTEP customer. "We have already proven this power with previous versions of NEXTSTEP, delivering applications to thousands of McCaw users in a matter of weeks, not the months required by other environments. With NEXTSTEP for Intel processors, we plan to expand our capabilities to a wide range of industry standard hardware platforms." "While Intel's 486-based PCs are ideal for most client/server applications, we have designed NEXTSTEP for Intel processors so that Pentium-based systems will provide workstation-class performance for users who require it." said Jobs. "For the applications we have benchmarked, the Pentium provides at least twice the performance of an equivalent 486." Customers already using NEXTSTEP in their core operations and planning to deploy additional applications on NEXTSTEP for Intel processors include: - Swiss Bank Corporation (financial trading) - William Morris Agency (talent) - McCaw Cellular (telecommunications) - Abbott Labs (healthcare) - WilTel (telecommunications) - PanCanadian (oil and gas) - Fidelity Investments (retail marketing) - UBS Securities (financial trading) - Chrysler Financial (financial services) - U.S. Department of Defense - Anderson Financial (financial services) - Preferred Health Care, Ltd. (health program management) Ideal for building and deploying client/server applications Using NEXTSTEP's visual application construction tools, developers can rapidly assemble reusable software objects into complete applications. NEXTSTEP's object-oriented framework and reusable object kits, "ObjectWare," helps developers create client/server applications more quickly and easily, and allows them to integrate them more tightly than with traditional tools. NeXT's ObjectWare is serving as the catalyst for a totally new category of third party software developers P developers who build reusable objects for sale to corporate developers. Today, NeXT's ObjectWare catalog features 1412 objects developed by third parties, up from 615 listed last year. NEXTSTEP also provides customers with distributed objects, a distributed object messaging architecture that allows objects residing on one computer to transparently send messages to objects residing on another computer. Using distributed objects, developers can assemble client/server applications using NEXTSTEP's visual application construction tools to connect the objects, avoiding the complexity of implementing client/server with traditional approaches. With NEXTSTEP's Database Kit, included as part of NEXTSTEP, customers have transparent client access to enterprise data residing on servers and mainframes. Database access adaptors for ORACLE and Sybase are bundled with NEXTSTEP. Adaptors for other popular databases, including DB/2, IMS, Ingres, GUPTA and Informix also are available. NEXTSTEP's distributed objects and Database Kit round out its strong advantage as the client/server application development environment of choice for today's corporate computing environments. Interoperability with DOS/Windows applications, NetWare and NFS NEXTSTEP for Intel processors offers interoperability and compatibility with Microsoftb DOS/Windows environments, including file transfer and the ability to run DOS and Windows applications within NEXTSTEP via PC emulation. Using SoftPCb, the technology developed and sold by Microsoft's supplier, Insignia Solutions of Mountain View, customers can continue to take full advantage of their existing applications while simultaneously gaining all of the benefits of full object-oriented operation. "Our DOS/Windows compatibility is exceptional because we use exactly the same technology that is being supplied to Microsoft for emulation under Windows NT," said Brett Bachman, director of product marketing at NeXT. "With SoftPC, customers can be guaranteed they are always up-to-date with Microsoft's latest release of DOS and Windows, and that they can continue to develop custom applications on NEXTSTEP without being concerned about compatibility with the latest DOS and Windows applications." NEXTSTEP also includes bundled support for Novellb NetWare and Unix Network File System (NFS), allowing preservation of existing investments in server and network connectivity. Pricing and availability NEXTSTEP Release 3.1 for Intel processors is available immediately, worldwide. It comes bundled with the user interface in six languages and retails in the U.S. for $795. It includes the NEXTSTEP graphical user interface, NeXTmail electronic mail, a suite of productivity applications and bundled database and network connectivity. NEXTSTEP Developer includes all of the tools and reusable objects needed to develop NEXTSTEP applications and is also available immediately. It retails in the U.S. for $1,995 and requires NEXTSTEP Release 3.1 for Intel processors. Pricing for each version varies in other countries, as well as for higher education and registered developers. NeXT Computer, Inc. NeXT develops and markets the award-winning NEXTSTEP object-oriented software for industry-standard computer architectures. Customers use NEXTSTEP to develop and deploy custom client/server applications, using both custom and shrink-wrapped software. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, and with offices throughout the world, NeXT serves customers requiring enterprise- wide, object-oriented productivity environments. # # # # NeXT, the NeXT logo and NEXTSTEP are registered trademarks of NeXT Computer, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners. =END=