OS/2 Shareware BBS: 16 Announce/16-Announce.zip/nwsavail.zip/nwsavail.txt

Text File | 1995-10-31 | 10KB | 170 lines

IBM Microkernel now commercially available

AUSTIN, Texas, October 30, 1995 . . . IBM today announced the general
availability of the IBM Microkernel, Release 1.0 and the IBM Microkernel
Development Environment (MDE), both previously available only through
licensing and evaluation agreements.  Release 1.0 of the IBM Microkernel will
support the PowerPC* microprocessor.

The IBM Microkernel allows corporations to leverage their hardware and
software investments through its scalability, portability and modularity.  The
IBM Microkernel provides a new way to structure system software by reducing
complexity and increasing the range of hardware and system configurations that
are supported by an operating system implementation.  It provides support for
the microprocessor, memory management, initialization and hardware devices.

"The IBM Microkernel will allow customers to quickly take advantage of
new processor and hardware architectures," said John W. Thompson, general
manager, IBM Personal Software Products.  "It will enable software products to
easily support multiple hardware platforms, which  protects investments, and
will use common components to reduce development costs and improve time to
market."

An open architecture designed for the future

Microkernel technology provides the potential for building a single,
truly open computing environment.  The system is structured as a set of
services that can be configured in a number of ways to provide a variety of
operating environments which can even execute simultaneously on a single
hardware platform.  In addition, the IBM Microkernel provides a set of
services that can be used to create operating system environments or other
servers executing on the microkernel.

The IBM Microkernel isolates the hardware-specific features of the
platform from the rest of the system, making it easy to port
hardware-independent software to other hardware platforms.  In traditional
monolithic operating systems, hardware-dependent code is not well isolated,
making the system difficult to port to other hardware environments.

The IBM Microkernel's modular structure makes it easy to add new
services to a variety of different operating environments and provides the
flexibility to implement these services in a number of different ways.  The
IBM Microkernel is also highly scalable to a broad range of hardware
platforms.  This provides customers with the ability to grow their computing
power along with the growth of their business and saves them from having to
migrate to an entirely new software environment.  Finally, microkernel-based
systems are easy to maintain because each server runs in a separate task and
errors in the server are confined to that task.  This makes problem
identification and correction much more simple than in traditional monolithic
systems.

MDE: The development toolkit for the IBM Microkernel

In addition to the IBM Microkernel source code, IBM has also made
generally available the IBM Microkernel Development Environment (MDE), an AIX*
-based toolkit for development of the IBM Microkernel or shared services.  The
MDE provides cross-compilation for Intel and PowerPC* systems and includes a
source level debugger, an interface definition language generator and a set of
development productivity tools.  The toolkit also includes a Metaware C, C++
compiler that supports the PowerPC architecture.

The foundation for OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition)

OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition), currently in beta testing, is the
first member of the OS/2 Warp family of operating system software based on the
IBM Microkernel architecture.  The microkernel architecture of the operating
system allows developers to easily port their 32-bit applications to OS/2 on
the PowerPC platform, usually with only a simple recompile.

Over time, the IBM Microkernel will provide scalability and portability
across the OS/2 product line as well as other third-party software, allowing
customers to use and reuse the same software base across various hardware
environments ranging from embedded systems to set-top boxes to servers.  This
architecture will also benefit developers by giving them a common code base
that scales across hardware environments and from which they can more
efficiently develop applications critical to their core businesses.

A worldwide leader in industry

The IBM Microkernel is fast becoming known as the platform of choice for
corporations in a variety of industries.  In its first year of licensing, IBM
has licensed the microkernel to several companies around the world, including
Digital Equipment Corporation, LG Electronics (formerly Goldstar), Komatsu,
Trusted Information Systems, Inc., the Institute for Information Industry,
Bell-Northern Research and TPS Systems.  In addition, several companies have
signed agreements with IBM to evaluate the microkernel.

"TPS became interested in the IBM Microkernel because many leading
hardware and software companies envision this technology to be the industry
standard for future development," said Lee Ranstrom, president of TPS
Systems.  "We believe that there is a place for smaller, specialized companies
like TPS to provide software and services to these larger companies and their
customers."

Through cross-licensing agreements, both IBM and licensees benefit from
any development made to the IBM Microkernel.  Furthermore, several companies
that have licensed the IBM Microkernel source code are represented on the IBM
Microkernel Architecture Review Board, which oversees all changes to the
microkernel architecture.  In this way, IBM is committed to making the
microkernel an open technology.

A versatile platform for research around the world

In addition to the commercial licensing of the microkernel, IBM has
signed academic research agreements with several leading universities and
research institutions worldwide.  The work being done at these institutions is
further enhancing the IBM Microkernel's reputation as a powerful and versatile
platform for research that is producing cutting edge technology in a variety
of fields.

"The release of the IBM Microkernel to the developer and user communities
is a very significant milestone in microkernel-based operating system research
and development," said research scientist Dr. Raj Rajkumar, who leads the
Real-Time Mach effort at Carnegie Mellon University.  "We believe that the
IBM Microkernel will further complement, enhance and eventually benefit
from ongoing microkernel research efforts at Carnegie Mellon University to
extend core real-time support, microkernel reconfigurability and
productivity-enhancing tools."

Among the universities and research institutes using the IBM Microkernel
in academic research activities:  Carnegie Mellon University, France's IRISA
(University of Rennes), the University of Notre Dame, Oregon Graduate
Institute, the Open Software Foundation Research Institute, Seoul National
University, the University of California at Irvine, the University of
California at Riverside, the University of Miami, the University of Tokyo,
Korea's Posthang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), the Helsinki
University of Technology, the University of Texas at Arlington and Cornell
University.

IBM continues to conduct its own research to enhance the IBM Microkernel
technology and to apply it in new and innovative ways.  Recently, the U.S.
Department of Defense, through the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) and
Rome Labs (USAF), awarded IBM a three-year grant to conduct real-time
extensions research with the IBM Microkernel in an effort to provide
"off-the-shelf" software that meets the requirements of the U.S. Department of
Defense.

The IBM Microkernel, Release 1.0 supports the PowerPC microprocessor, and
future releases will support Intel 486 and Pentium, MIPS, Alpha, ARM and
Motorola 821 processors.  The IBM Microkernel is based on technology from
Carnegie Mellon University and incorporates selected technology from the Open
Software Foundation Research Institute.  Major portions of the IBM Microkernel
code have been enhanced to make the IBM Microkernel a robust commercial
product.

In addition to the commercial availability of the first release of the
IBM Microkernel, Release 2.0, which includes support for embedded systems, is
now available for evaluation.  To purchase, license or obtain information
about the IBM Microkernel, customers may call IBM at 1-800-816-7493 in the
U.S. or [phone] outside the U.S.

To enroll in the following IBM Microkernel educational offerings,
customers may contact their IBM rep:
IBM Microkernel Overview, MSE #CQ20220C
IBM Microkernel Architecture Review, MSE #20200C
IBM Microkernel Programming Workshop, MSE #20210C
To order the University Video Communications video tape on the IBM
Microkernel, The Distinguished Lecture Series XI, Microkernel Concepts and The
IBM Microkernel:
 415-813-0506, 415-813-0315 (FAX)
 URL address http://www.uvc.com/

IBM news releases are available on the Internet, via the IBM Home Page at
http://www.ibm.com.  The IBM Fax Information Service allows you to receive
facsimiles of prior IBM product press releases. Dial 1-800-IBM-4FAX and enter
"99" at the voice menu.

* IBM, AIX, PowerPC and OS/2 are registered trademarks of International
Business Machines Corporation.