Conference kernel::csguk_systems

117.0. "ULTRIX/OSF Operating system announcement." by COMICS::TREVENNOR (A child of init) Fri Oct 26 1990 21:02

    Attached is the draft announcement for ULTRIX/OSF - another addition to
    the Ultrix family of operating systems. As yet this is available only
    as a developers kit, but by next year it will be a corporately offered
    product running on VAX, RISC and who knows what.
    
    The Open Software foundation has specified a 'standard' for Unix, OSF/1
    is the first implementation of that standard.
    
    If you want more info, let me know
    
    Alan T.
    
    
    
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                 *************  DRAFT *******************

DO NOT COPY OUTSIDE DIGITAL.

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION ANNOUNCES OSF/1 ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT KIT

NEW YORK, NY -- October 23, 1990 -- Today Digital Equipment Corporation
announced that it will ship a binary version of OSF/1 software in Q1CY91.
Digital is providing this Advanced Development Kit in response to requests
for an OSF-based DECstation platform from end users, ISVs, and academic
institutions.

Earlier this year, Digital announced that the next major version of its
ULTRIX operating system would be based on OSF/1.  Digital's Cambridge
Research Lab, with the support of the OSF Research Institute, is currently
shipping ULTRIX-compatible OSF snapshots to the research community.  The 
addition of the Advanced Development Kit provides Digital customers with
early access to OSF/1 code and firmly established Digital as the leading
systems integrator of OSF technology.

"Today's announcement is a major milestone for delivering an
OSF/1-based ULTRIX product line," said Dominic J. LaCava, Vice President
of Digital's UNIX-based Systems and Software Group.  LaCava also noted
that Digital is committed to providing customers with the entire range of OSF 
technology, which includes the OSF/1 base operating system, the MOTIF
graphical user interface, the Distributed Computing Environment, and
the future Distributed Management Environment.

Digital Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts, is
the leading worldwide suppler of networked computer systems and services.  
Digital offers a full range of computing solutions and systems for 
integrating the entire enterprise -- from the desktop the the datacenter.


OSF/1 SANDBOX PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

1.0	INTRODUCTION

This document describes the product requirements for the OSF/1 Sandbox.
OSF/1 is the Open Software Foundation's reference implementation of a UNIX 
operating system.  The product requirements for the OSF/1 Sandbox are 
simply for Digital to ship a binary version of OSF/1 in Q3FY91. 

Until now, this project has been informally referred to as the OSF/1 
Developer's Kit.  The project name has been changed to OSF/1 Sandbox in this 
document to more accurately reflect its contents and goals.  The 
OSF/1 Sandbox is not a separate product that will be sold in competition 
with ULTRIX.  OSF/1 Sandbox is simply a binary version of the source kit
that OSF will begin shipping in November 1990.  It's worth noting that
a prerequisite for ordering sources from OSF is an AT&T source code
license for $100,000. 

Customers who order the OSF/1 Sandbox from Digital will be ISVs, end users,
and academic and research institutions who want to "kick the tires" and 
begin investigating the OSF API.  Customers will use the OSF/1 Sandbox for 
advance development, not as a deployment platform.  Interested customers
will order one or two OSF/1 Sandbox kits at most.  As a result, the lifetime 
volume of OSF/1 Sandbox shipments will not exceed 100 to 200 units.

2.0	OSF/1 SANDBOX GOALS

The project goals are listed in priority order:

1.	Market impact.  The goal is to establish Digital as the leader
    	in delivering OSF technology. HP adopted a similar goal in their
    	MOTIF campaign.

2.	Market acceptance.  The goal is to attract new customers and ISVs
    	by capitalizing on the growing acceptance of OSF/1 in the UNIX 
    	marketplace.  These are customers who believe in Digital's OSF
    	strategy, but do not want to invest in porting to ULTRIX V4.* 
    	and then porting to ULTRIX/OSF (Hercules).

3.	Leading-edge ISV platform.  The goal is to provide ISVs with early 
    	access to a DEC platform that supports the OSF API.  These ISVs 
    	want to develop applications on an OSF API that will run on 
    	ULTRIX/OSF, HP/OSF, AIX/OSF, or */OSF.

4.	Solve critical problems for Hercules. The goal is to work through
    	problems that might gate the Hercules release at the beginning rather
    	than the end of the development cycle.  Obvious examples are OSF/1 
    	bug fixes and shared libraries integration.

3.0  	OSF/1 SANDBOX NON-GOALS

There are two important non-goals for OSF/1 Sandbox:

1.	ULTRIX Compatibility.  It is not a goal of OSF/1 Sandbox to
    	provide any level of compatibility with ULTRIX V4.*.  

2.	Stability.  It is not a goal of OSF/1 Sandbox to guarantee
    	a stable deployment platform for application development.