From mani Tue Feb 14 14:09:47 1995 Subject: FYI: IONA Paul: Will you sign up and pass the information on? -- Mani ============================================================= From gannon@cs.indiana.edu Tue Feb 14 12:45:45 1995 Received: from csvax.cs.caltech.edu by vlsi.cs.caltech.edu (4.1/1.34.1) id AA07580; Tue, 14 Feb 95 12:45:39 PST Received: from moose.cs.indiana.edu by csvax.cs.caltech.edu (4.1/1.34.1) id AA28799; Tue, 14 Feb 95 12:43:54 PST Message-Id: <9502142043.AA28799@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> Received: by moose.cs.indiana.edu (5.65c/9.4jsm) id AA11545; Tue, 14 Feb 1995 15:43:57 -0500 Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 15:43:57 -0500 From: "Dennis Gannon" To: kksiazek@cs.indiana.edu, mani@cs.caltech.edu Subject: FYI: IONA news letter Status: R hi, the following is NOT a paid advertisement. I was sent this newsletter and it has some interesting stuff about what one small CORBA company is doing. thought you might be interested. d. __________________________________________________________ Issue 10 IonaSphere 14 Feb 1995 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to IonaSphere 95, the IONA newsletter. Your name is on the IONA mail list. You will receive periodic updates on the state of the company's offerings. The pieces of news herein: I10-A> Multithreaded Orbix Available on Beta Program I10-B> New X and TCL Integration Code I10-C> Orbix on Unixware I10-D> IONA and US Government I10-E> Orbix Training Courses I10-F> IONA and the Web I10-G> IONA Forthcoming Tradeshows I10-H> Current Orbix Platforms I10-I> New Documents Available from IONA - Getting Started with Orbix+Isis - Press releases (AIX/OSF/1 /CWC/NOVELL/Web*) - Various tutorials (Orbix, Orbix+Isis) If you wish to be added to/removed from this mail list please send an email to ionasphere-request@iona.ie indicating your wish. If you need any information or have a question, please contact the editor - editor@iona.ie I10-A> Multithreaded Orbix Available on Beta Program ------------------------------------------------------ Orbix-MT, a multithreaded version of Orbix using Solaris threads, is now in Beta. Threading will allow developers to easily design fast non-blocking client server applications. The Beta program is open primarily to existing customers. Contact beta-support@iona.ie if you would like to join the program. I10-B> New X and TCL Integration Code ------------------------------------- A new Orbix/Demos directory has been put up on the IONA ftp server. [ftp.iona.ie] Code has been contributed by users and IONA engineers. This code is unsupported and unwarranted. New sample code which puts forward an elegant callback-based solution to the problem of integrating Orbix and X-Windows. [simple_Xdemo.tar.gz] A distributed biff, as recently described in the X-Journal, is also available. [XJiOml_demo.tar.gz] TCL integration is also available. [iOmlXTK_demo.tar.gz] IO9-C> Orbix on UnixWare ------------------------ IONA have today announced the availability of Orbix for Novell`s latest release of UnixWare 2.0. UnixWare is a key platform for Orbix because of its strong multiprocessing support, NetWare integration, and rapidly growing popularity. "IONA is a valued partner", said Mike deFazio, EVP, Novell. This brings to 13 the platforms that Orbix supports. [See Press19.txt] I10-D> IONA and US Government ----------------------------- IONA is one of seven companies jointly granted $4 million by the US Government to develop reusable software components. The ComponentWare Consortium (CWC), which also includes Pratt and Whitney, NAVSEA and SunSoft, says that members will spend $30 million in two years researching standard components which can be assembled into full applications. [see Press15.txt] I10-E> Orbix Training Courses ----------------------------- The schedule for open-enrolment courses on Orbix is as follows: 27th Feb New Jersey 27th March San Francisco area, CA 24th April Dublin, Ireland 8th May New Jersey IONA offers 5 day entensive and hands-on courses on Orbix, and also general courses on CORBA. On-site courses are available world-wide. Courses on Orbix and Databases, Multithreading and Orbix+Isis are also available. Contact training@iona.ie for details. I10-F> IONA and the Web ----------------------- IONA now has a multithreading server, to save on bandwidth and get core information to the web client faster. We`ve also added some features to allow you to subscribe to our mail lists from the Web. CERC in Virginia has developed an Orbix interface to their Web* offering. Web* (WebStar) is an enabler to put information available in different information sources on the Web. This software will allow anyone trying to setup a Web server (HTTP server) to provide information which they have accessible programmatically but not in HTML format. [see http://webstar.cerc.wvu.edu/ and Press17.txt] I10-G> IONA Forthcoming Tradeshows ---------------------------------- IONA will be at Objectworld Boston on 21-23 March in the Hynes Convention Center. We will be demonstrating our multiplatform CORBA and OLE-CORBA bridge. Please drop by. Contact editor@iona.ie (giving your postal address) if you would like a complimentary ticket. IONA is currently attending OBJECT `95 in Sweden. I10-H> Current Platforms ------------------------ The Orbix 1.3 availability schedule is as follows: OS Compiler Release dates for 1995 ---------------------------------------------------------------- SunOS 4.1 SPARCompiler 3.0.2 NOW SunOS 4.1 SPARCompiler 4.0 NOW SunOS 4.1 GNU 2.5.8 NOW Solaris 2.x SPARCompiler 3.0.2 NOW Solaris 2.x SPARCompiler 4.0 NOW Solaris 2.x GNU 2.5.7 NOW Solaris x86 ProCompiler3.0.1 NOW IRIX 5.x Native NOW HP-UX 9.x HP C++ A. 3.20 NOW Microsoft Windows NT3.5 Visual C++ 2.0 NOW OSF/1 3.0 DEC C++ NOW IBM AIX 3.2.5 C Set++ NOW Ultrix 4.3 DEC C++ NOW UnixWare 2.0 Native NOW Sinix Native C++ Beta now MS Windows 3.1 16 bit Visual C++ Beta now Contact IONA for info on Orbix on VxWorks(Beta now), OS/2 and SCO. I10-I> New Documents Available from IONA ---------------------------------------- Mailserver Keyword Actual Filename Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------- directory: / announcement Announcement.txt * Product Announcement directory: Demos/ xjourn XJiOml_demo.tar.gz * XJournal Orbix demo code xjourntk iOmlXTK_demo.tar.gz * TK version of above directory: Orbix_Papers/ performance Performance.ps.Z * Performance Figures performmsword Performance.doc.Z * Performance Figures(MSword) orbix_tut Orbix_tut.ps.Z * A programmer`s intro to Orbix directory: Partners/ isis_tut isis_tut.ps.Z * A programmer`s intro to Orbix+ISIS directory: Press_Releases/ press14 Press14.txt * Rel. for Orbix on AIX press15 Press15.txt * Rel. for ComponentWare Consortia press16 Press16.txt * Rel. for Orbix on Ultrix and OSF/1 press17 Press17.txt * Rel. for Webstar, an Orbix enabled public domain Web tool press18 Press18.txt * OMG release w.r.t. COSS Vol 2 press19 Press19.txt * Rel. for Orbix on UnixWare directory: Training/ courses Courses.txt * IONA's training and consultancy trainorder Trainorder.ps.Z * Training registration form Instructions: Files that contain binary characters and will be uuencoded before mailserver transmission. Request the "HELP" file for more details. There are several means of obtaining these: electronic mail server - server@iona.ie anonymous ftp file server - ftp ftp.iona.ie World Wide Web - http://www.iona.ie/ air mail document manager - editor@iona.ie To receive the article from our mail server include the Mailserver Keyword in the body of an email. For example, to obtain the MS Word version of our Architecture document, simply send mail to server@iona.ie and include the word "archmsword" in the body of the mail. NOTE: that you can only have one keyword per mail. Only the keyword will work, you cannot request Announcement.txt, for example. You must request announcement. From pboyle@overload.iona.ie Mon Mar 6 04:38:46 1995 Subject: Re: Please subscribe me to the list. Cc: pboyle@overload.iona.ie (Patrick Boyle), mgallery@overload.iona.ie (Margaret Gallery) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL22] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 11417 Adam, Your name has been put on the IonaSphere mailing list. I enclose our product description. It gives an overview of our product and company. It also describes how to get more information from our information servers (mail and ftp and WWW). Please contact IONA if you would like more information or an evaluation copy of Orbix If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. Best regards Patrick ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick Boyle ---| email: pboyle@iona.ie -----| ------------------- IONA Technologies --| ftp: ftp.iona.ie --------| tel: +353-1-6686522 8-34 Percy Place ---| WWW: http://www.iona.ie/ | fax: +353-1-6686573 Ireland. -----------| -- In the USA call: 1-800 orbix4u, 1-800 6724948 =================================cut================================== Product Description - December 7, 1994 --------------------------------------- IONA's Orbix - Object Request Broker ==================================== Orbix is a full and complete implementation of the Object Management Group's (OMG's) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). With Orbix, programmers can develop distributed applications using object-oriented client-server technology, and use object technology to compose new applications from existing components and subsystems. The first version of Orbix was released in June 1993 and since then it has become the leading CORBA compliant Object Request Broker. It is used by leading software providers across the banking, telecommunications, engineering and government sectors in addition to the general software market. Orbix is currently being used in Motorola's IRIDIUM project. IONA is partially owned by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Orbix provides a C++ language binding for CORBA and is supported on SunSoft SunOS, Solaris2.x and Solaris x86, Silicon Graphic's IRIX, HP/UX, AIX, OSF/1 and Windows NT3.5. Orbix for Windows 3.1 is in Beta testing. Orbix interworks across Windows and Unix. Note: If you are unfamiliar with CORBA we suggest you examine our architecture document. This document is available from our information servers, where you will also find the full CORBA architecture document. Features: --------- Orbix provides all the functionality presented in the OMG CORBA specification: - Interface Definition Language (IDL) compiler: Translates IDL specifications into code to marshal and dispatch object requests. The IDL compiler generates all the necessary code to enable transparent client interactions with potentially remote objects. - Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII): Alternatively, requests can be composed and dynamically type checked without prior knowledge of operation signatures. - Full support for type 'any' and for TypeCodes: Allows values to be self-describing, containing run-time type information. - Basic Object Adaptor, and all associated activation policies: Provides the interface to Orbix for servers, and controls how objects are mapped to system processes. - Interface Repository, including update facility: Allows information about available interfaces to be obtained at runtime. Orbix also supports numerous beneficial extensions to CORBA: - Implementation Repository and Administration tools: This Repository is used to locate the executable files for a server when a request arrives for one of its objects. An incoming request will cause the associated image to be run if there is currently no active server. Not all objects in the system need to be recorded in the implementation repository: only those whose invocation should, if necessary, force an image activation. The repository also has an IDL interface which can be runtime invoked. - A stream based interface to the DII: The CORBA DII is quite complex to use: Orbix provides an additional, stream based, interface which makes writing DII clients considerably simpler. - Programmer control over 'proxies'/'surrogates': Proxies are local representatives for remote objects. In performance -sensitive applications, server programmers can override the standard proxy code (using inheritance) and implement strategies to cache state and accept call-backs from server objects. - Collocation of client and server code: The IDL language binding implemented in Orbix is highly symmetric between clients and servers. As a result, client and server code can be linked together in the same address space, without requiring recompilation. The resultant code is highly efficient (by-passing all marshalling stubs). Collocation is beneficial for debugging and development prior to distributed working, and also for programming non-distributed applications in the large by using IDL. - Process level filters: Programmers can develop their own filter code for incoming and outgoing messages for both clients and servers. This facilitates integration of thread packages, monitoring and debugging, auditing and authentication/authorisation/encryption support. - Object level filters: Further, programmers can develop their own filter code for invocations and responses on individual objects. This is frequently useful to enable a group of associated objects to collectively respond to a request: the membership of the group can be dynamically changed. For example, a `move' operation on a GUI object may, transparently to that object, propagate to other attached objects. - Location Service: A simple, but flexible and scaleable, consultation service is provided to assist the binding of client object references to remote servers, when the name of the host(s) providing the service is unknown. - Loaders and Object fault handling: For servers with a large number of objects, it might be impractical to hold all of the objects in memory. When an invocation on an object arrives at its server, application specific 'loader' code can be used to load the object from a file or other storage, and resume the invocation transparently to the client. Such "object fault" handling is reminiscent of "page fault" handling in a virtual memory system. Performance: ------------ Orbix was built to be a lightweight product. A null remote invocation takes 0.3 milliseconds. This is the only overhead that a programmer has on a full round-trip invocation to a remote object. This shows that Orbix adds very little overhead; most of the cost comes from the underlying communications. Availability: ------------- The Orbix release 1.3 availability and release schedule is as follows: OS Compiler Release dates for 1994/5 ---------------------------------------------------------------- SunOS 4.1 SPARCompiler 3.0.2 NOW SunOS 4.1 SPARCompiler 4.0 NOW SunOS 4.1 GNU 2.5.8 NOW Solaris 2.x SPARCompiler 3.0.2 NOW Solaris 2.x SPARCompiler 4.0 NOW Solaris 2.x GNU 2.5.7 NOW Solaris x86 ProCompiler3.0.1 NOW IRIX 5.1 Native NOW HP-UX Native NOW Microsoft Windows NT Visual C++ NOW OSF/1 DEC C++ NOW IBM AIX C Set++ NOW Ultrix DEC C++ NOW Sinix Native C++ 1st Qtr Microsoft Windows 3.1 Visual C++ BETA UnixWare Native NOW A release of Orbix on SCO is also planned. Contact info@iona.ie for more information about Orbix platforms. Ordering Information: --------------------- Full pricing and ordering details are also available upon request. Major credit cards are accepted for all payments. For further information, please contact sales at the co-ordinates below. Discounts are available for UNIX versions for volumes of 3 and upwards: please contact IONA for details. In addition, there is a 50% educational discount and a 25% research discount on our Unix developers kits. A 60 day evaluation copy of Orbix is now available on any currently supported platform. To avail of this offer send us your fax number and we will supply you with an Evaluation License Order form. Alternatively, the Evaluation Order Form is available in PostScript from our information servers [keyword: Evalorder]. An evaluation copy of Orbix costs $200 dollars, this includes documentation, cost of shipment and free support for the evaluation period. Company Overview and Partners: ------------------------------ IONA Technologies Ltd. was formed in March 1991 as a result of experience in distributed systems and object technology gained by researchers at the Department of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin. The University work was stimulated by several ESPRIT projects, part funded by the European Commission, during the period 1985-1991, including COMANDOS, HARNESS, ISA, and Ithaca. SunSoft Inc. [a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems Inc.] and IONA have signed an agreement to align their implementations of the Object Management Group's (OMG's) CORBA standard. To cement the partnership IONA has sold a minority equity stake in the company to SunSoft. ISIS [a subsidiary of Stratus Computers Inc.] and IONA have signed an agreement to integrate their products. Orbix+ISIS will allow programmers to easily develop fault-tolerant distributed systems. Object Design Inc and IONA have announced plans to integrate Orbix with ObjectStore, the leading object database. The collaboration represents the first time an object database has been integrated with a CORBA-conformant ORB. Motorola Inc. has chosen Orbix as the software with which it will build and control the ground station segment for the IRIDIUM Global Cellular Network program. The IRIDIUM system is one of the most ambitious telecommunications projects ever undertaken, representing an investment of $3.4 billion. When it goes on-line in 1998, the IRIDIUM system will provide the first wireless communications network that spans the world. Semaphore Inc. [the official OMG CORBA training company] and IONA have signed an agreement to use Orbix in all CORBA training courses. IONA also provides a range of consultancy and training services in Orbix and CORBA as well as Object Technology and Distributed Systems. Further Information: -------------------- More information can be obtained from IONA by several means: Newsletter: subscribe to IonaSphere, our monthly electronic newsletter by mailing: ionasphere-request@iona.ie Mail Server: send e-mail to server@iona.ie with the word 'index' in the body of the mail. World Wide Web: connect to http://www.iona.ie/ Anonymous FTP: connect to ftp.iona.ie and look in the pub/Orbix directory Telephone: Call 1-800-orbix4u in the USA, +353-1-6686522 elsewhere. Air Mail: contact IONA and give your name and address, an info. pack will be mailed to you. Users Group: To subscribe please send mail to orbix-users-request@iona.ie. Include the keyword subscribe in the body of the mail to be added to the orbix-users@iona.ie mail-list. > > Please subscribe me to the IONA list. > > Adam Rifkin > adam@vlsi.caltech.edu >