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1990-05-10
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Gary Wolfe or Jennifer Jester
Corporate Relations Department
Banyan Systems Incorporated
(508) 898-1000
NEW RELEASE OF BANYAN APPLICATIONS TOOLKIT GIVES SOFTWARE
DEVELOPERS ENHANCED PROGRAMMING ACCESS TO VINES VERSION 4.0
WESTBORO, Mass., May 8, 1990 -- Banyan Systems today announced a
new release of its VINESR Applications Toolkit, designed to give
third party developers, end-users, and resellers convenient
programmatic access to the distributed processing environment of
VINES Version 4.0. The new Toolkit features a number of major
enhancements including: new APIs for International Naming Support
and StreetTalk Directory Assistance, an improved development
environment; and support for NetRPCTM -- Banyan's remote procedure
call mechanism -- within Mail Gateways.
The VINES 4.0 Applications Toolkit facilitates the creation of new,
client-server distributed software applications for the growing
community of customers who rely on VINES networks to operate their
businesses and organizations. "As the number of customers using
VINES networks grows, and as each VINES network itself grows, there
is a progressively greater demand for quality distributed
applications to meet mission-critical network computing
requirements," said James Allchin, Banyan Vice President and Chief
Technical Officer. "Providing developers with the most powerful,
yet easiest-to-use tools is the best way for Banyan to ensure that
this demand is met effectively and expediently."
Distributed applications offer many advantages over traditional
mini/host based applications or over workstation centric
applications. These advantages include: More efficient processing
of user requests by sharing the burden of work among multiple
machines and processing data where it is physically located; More
secure environment where access to data can be controlled and
securely backed up; Modular application design with the potential
of easily porting to the wide variety of server platforms
frequently found in the large network environment typical of VINES
installations.
Client-server applications created using the VINES 4.0 Applications
Toolkit can be seamlessly integrated and fully distributed across
an entire VINES network while leveraging the many unique strengths
that differentiate VINES from all other PC network computing
environments. Among the most important of these strengths are
powerful internetwork communications, convenient network
administration, ease of installation and expansion, mainframe-like
security, and StreetTalkTM... Banyan's industry-leading global
directory service.
A Unique Development Environment for Client/Server Distributed Applications
The VINES Applications Toolkit provides developers a number of key
features not found collectively in any other network development
toolkit. Providing a rich environment to create quality distributed
applications quickly, the Toolkit:
* Leverages industry standard environments found on VINES servers
and clients: Use of standard operating systems eases the
developers' tasks of creating and debugging network applications.
By using ATT UNIXR V.3 on the server, developers need not learn
the intricacies of a new operating system. Toolkit APIs
(Application Programming Interfaces) leverage the current VINES
services, such as StreetTalk, Server Service, VANGuardTM Security,
and the Message Transport Agent (MTA). Communication APIs are also
provided. For optimum client-server communication, there are
Berkeley UNIX-style socket interfaces on both client and server for
VINES IP, TCP/IP, and X.25 protocol stacks.
* Presents a standard and complete development environment for
creating distributed applications: The development environment is
complete, with all APIs, "C" language libraries, "C" programming
tools and utilities and ATT UNIX commands present on the server.
The client uses Microsoft "C" and presents to developers the same
programmatic interface found on the server. In addition, the
development environment provides developer access to the UNIX shell
from any client workstation on the network. Developers need not
program at the system console because any PC can act as a virtual
terminal to the UNIX developer environment. The Toolkit also
provides a UNIX/DOS bridge file service that permits developers
(and their applications) to access the UNIX file structure
concurrently from server or workstation.
* Offers a Network Compiler (NetRPCTM) for both client and server
platforms. Included with the Applications Toolkit is a Network
Compiler that lets developers create their own network APIs and
easily use a network topology or server platform of choice. The
Network Compiler turns developer-defined calls (functions) into
network-specific code. These Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) free
developers from needing a detailed knowledge of the communication
codes. Since the inception of VINES, Banyan has used NetRPC in-
house to create all of its client-server applications (such as
Network Management, Electronic Mail, and Systems Administration).
New Features Expand Toolkit's Versatility and Convenience
Building upon the foundation of the previous toolkit offering, the
VINES 4.0 Applications Toolkit continues to provide an advanced
UNIXR System V development environment to build client/server
applications for DOS or UNIX; extensive API suites for VINES
services, resources and communications; and a rich set of
developer's productivity tools. Major enhancements featured in the
new VINES 4.0 Toolkit include:
* APIs for international naming support: Developers can now create
applications that span the globe and use multiple languages
concurrently. By means of international naming APIs, VINES
applications can meet the unique needs of multi-national/multi-
lingual organizations, simultaneously supporting users in their own
native languages.
* API for the new VINES StreetTalk Directory Assistance (STDA): The
STDA productivity tool provides nearly instantaneous access to
StreetTalk names, even when these names are defined on remote or on
temporarily disconnected servers. The STDA API lets distributed
applications take advantage of this fast response and quickly
select and sort through the STDA database for valid StreetTalk
names of individuals and network resources.
* Improved development environment and tools: The 4.0 Toolkit
incorporates an enhanced UNIX programming environment that gives
developers a choice of UNIX shells: Bourne or C-shell. Also
provided are i80486-aware tools that allow developers to take full
advantage of the latest hardware server technology, Intel's i486TM.
Other tools include a new compiler, linker, and assembler. The
compiler also supports the larger shared memory necessary for
complex distributed applications.
* Support for Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) within mail gateways:
RPCs defined by developers using VINES' NetRPC, can now be utilized
within mail gateway applications, eliminating the need to develop
multiple process gateway applications.
All Toolkit-developed applications are portable across Banyan's
CNSTM, BNSTM, DTSTM, VINES/386, VINES/486, and VINES/SMP platforms
because the development environment is completely consistent for
all of these platforms. Moreover, once an application has been
developed, the Toolkit is not necessary to run it. Representative
applications developed using the Toolkit include several
distributed databases (including OracleR Server for VINES and VIATM
Server for VINES), many mail/fax gateways (including multiple X.400
gateways), and many office automation and productivity
applications.
The VINES 4.0 Applications Toolkit has a U.S. list price of $1,995.
The Revision 3.10 Toolkit will continue to ship until Revision 4.0
is available during the third quarter of 1990. Training is $1,395;
Support is $1,995 for the first server, $750 for each additional
server.
###
About Banyan Systems Incorporated
Banyan Systems is the leader in corporate-wide PC networking.
Banyan's premier product is VINESR, a powerful, fully-integrated
network computing environment based on industry and international
standards. VINES permits the convenient accessing, sharing, and
managing of computer information and resources in distributed
systems ranging from localized PC clusters up to the largest
multinational PC networks in the world.
Operating on a growing variety of popular personal computers as
well as on Banyan's own family of network servers, VINES
transparently internetworks PCs, minicomputers, mainframes, and
other resources with local and wide area networks. The resultant
network is secure and convenient to administer, yet it provides a
single easy-to-understand user interface at each workstation. VINES
users need no knowledge of network topology. They perceive the
entire network as a virtual extension of their own PCs, and simply
access needed resources via Banyan's StreetTalkTM, the world's first
and most powerful global directory service.
Banyan Systems is headquartered at 120 Flanders Road, Westboro, MA
01581. (508) 898-1000.
Banyan and VINES are registered trademarks and StreetTalk, NetRPC,
and VANGuard are trademarks of Banyan Systems.
UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.
IBM is a registered trademark and PS/2 is a trademark of
International Business Machines Corporation.
ORACLE is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.
VIA is a trademark of VIA Information Systems Corp.