Item    3923844                 93/11/23        11:50
From:   KAREN_LOGSDON@NEXT.COM@INTERNET#
Subject: SUNSOFT AND NeXT PARTNER TO DRIVE VOLUME OBJECT STANDARD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contacts Only:
Karen Andre
SunSoft
415-336-3890
or
Karen Logsdon
NeXT Computer, Inc.
415-780-3786
or
Emily Cohen
Hi-Tech Communications
415-904-7000


SUNSOFT AND NeXT PARTNER TO DRIVE VOLUME OBJECT STANDARD

NeXT to Publish Open Specification;
SunSoft Licenses Implementation for Use in Solaris

SAN FRANCISCO, November 23, 1993-To accelerate the standardization of
object technology, SunSoft, the system software subsidiary of Sun
Microsystems, Inc., and NeXT Computer, Inc. today announced a series
of agreements where NeXT will publish an open specification, called
OpenStep, and  SunSoft will license NEXTSTEP's application
environment for use in its Solaris enterprise system software.


NeXT will "open up" NEXTSTEP by freely licensing the APIs
(Application Programming Interfaces) and the OpenStep trademark to
all independent implementations which pass an OpenStep test suite.
OpenStep is based on the operating system-independent layers of
NEXTSTEP 3.2, which NeXT is shipping today.


"I believe that object technology is one of the core technologies
that will drive enterprise computing in the '90s," said Scott
McNealy, chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc.  "We are pleased
that we can now integrate NeXT's proven object technology with
SunSoft's distributed computing environment. Sun is now in a great
position to drive a volume object standard for the future."


"Solaris is the highest volume UNIX-based operating system," said
Steven P. Jobs, chairman and CEO of NeXT Computer, Inc.   "SunSoft's
choosing of NEXTSTEP parallels Apple's choosing of PostScript 10
years ago.  We feel that this relationship will drive NEXTSTEP to
become the object-oriented standard for open systems computing."

The SunSoft/NeXT Agreement:

# NeXT will publish an interface specification, called OpenStep,
which is based on the operating system independent layers of NEXTSTEP
Release 3.2 APIs.  This allows applications which only use these APIs
to be portable across multiple OpenStep implementations regardless of
the underlying operating system. The OpenStep specification will be
published by June 30, 1994 and submitted to an appropriate standards
organization, such as the OMG (Object Management Group) and X/Open,
for adoption.


#  SunSoft has licensed the NEXTSTEP application environment and will
use this technology to develop an implementation of the OpenStep
specification for use in its Solaris Distributed Object Environment
(DOE).


#  Sun Microsystems, Inc. will make a minority equity investment in
NeXT Computer, Inc.


#  NeXT will port the native NEXTSTEP operating system to the SPARC
architecture with marketing and technical assistance from Sun's SPARC
Technology Business (a business unit of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

#  SunSoft has licensed to NeXT its implementations of networking and
distributed object technologies, including CORBA (Common Object
Request Broker Architecture), the Object Management Group's IDL
(Interface Definition Language) and NFS (Network File System).

Object programming is widely recognized as the next wave of software
application development, greatly reducing the time it takes to
construct applications, increasing their reliability and allowing the
reuse and leverage of software components.


According to Chris Stone, president of the Object Management Group
(OMG), "Now that NeXT is opening up the NEXTSTEP API and Sun is
teaming up with them to promote it, the OpenStep specification has a
great chance to become the ubiquitous object interface for
application developers."

"SunSoft firmly believes it will have a distinct time-to-market
advantage for a complete object-based, enterprise caliber operating
environment as application developers and end users make the
inevitable move to object technology," said Edward J. Zander, SunSoft
president.  "We evaluated all of the object-oriented alternatives and
we chose NeXT because it offers the best  technology for building
object-oriented applications, and it is proven technology which has
been shipping  for years.  This agreement brings together world-class
technology from both vendors to allow SunSoft to offer a
best-of-breed distributed software environment for enterprise-level
computing."

SunSoft, Inc.

SunSoft headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a subsidiary of
Sun Microsystems, Inc., the exclusive computer supplier to World Cup
USA 1994.  The company has offices in North America, Europe and Asia.
SunSoft is a leading supplier of 32-bit system software solutions for
SPARC and Intel 80386/486-based computers.  The products are licensed
by SunSoft and distributed through major computer manufacturers
worldwide.

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, 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.  Sun Microsystems, Inc., SunSoft and Solaris are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.  UNIX
is a registered trademark of UNIX Systems Laboratories.  Intel is a
registered trademark of Intel Corporation.  All other products or
service names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners.



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