Novell Introduces UnixWare(R) 2

New UNIX Operating System Is Ideal for Business-Critical and Database Applications, the Preferred Application Server For NetWare(R) Environments.

San Jose, CA -- Jan. 10, 1995 -- Novell, Inc. today announced pricing and availability of UnixWare 2, the ideal general purpose application platform for business-critical and database applications and the preferred application server for NetWare environments. The worldwide rollout of UnixWare 2 began in December 1994 when the product was delivered to OEM customers and application developers. UnixWare 2 in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish versions will be available through Novell's authorized UnixWare distributors beginning March 21, 1995.

UnixWare 2 is the next generation of UNIX System V Release 4 (SVR4) technology, a platform for popular commercial applications that has been evolving for more than 20 years. This new version is designed for customers seeking a powerful, cost-effective system for deploying business-critical and database applications across their enterprises. UnixWare 2 meets customer needs for high performance, scalability, NetWare integration, ease of use and administration, and broad applications support, in an application server platform designed for mission-critical systems.

"The installation process for UnixWare 2 is simple and greatly reduces the time and expertise required," said Michael Kraft, president of Kraft, Kennedy and Lesser, a New York-based consulting and system integrator firm specializing in the legal market. "The multiprocessing option makes it a very powerful product because it gives our clients greater performance and the ability to easily expand as their needs grow. And in the legal industry, the need for tight integration between NetWare and UnixWare makes this a very viable solution."

"UnixWare 2 gives businesses a level of performance and scalability on industry standard Intel platforms never before available in any general purpose operating system," said Mike DeFazio, executive vice president and general manager for Novell's UNIX Systems Group. "That power, coupled with simple installation and administration, rich connectivity to NetWare and UNIX networks, and support for thousands of existing applications, makes UnixWare the premier application and database server for business. Novell is delivering the industry's finest line-of-business application platform for truly pervasive computing in today's enterprises."

Pricing and Availability

The suggested retail price of UnixWare 2 products listed here apply to English, French, Italian, German and Spanish versions. Pricing remains consistent across all these international language versions. Some duty fees may apply.

          UnixWare 2 Products      Suggested Retail Price (in U.S. Dollars)
          UnixWare 2 Application   $1,695
          Server*                  CD-ROM, QIC-120 Tape
          UnixWare 2 Personal      $445
          Edition* (includes NFS)  CD-ROM, QIC-120 Tape
          UnixWare 2 Processor     $895 on diskette
          Upgrade (one upgrade per
          additional CPU)
          UnixWare 2 Online Data   $2,195
          Manager                  CD-ROM, diskette
          UnixWare 2 Server Merge  $395 diskette
          UnixWare 2 Encryption    $95 diskette
          Utilities (U.S. only)
          UnixWare 2 Software      $145 CD-ROM
          Development Kit          $195 QIC-120 Tape
          (includes C and C++)
         * Supports up to two
         processors.
     

Novell is also announcing a UnixWare 2 worldwide upgrade promotion which allows customers who purchase UnixWare 1.1 between November 1, 1994 and March 31, 1995 to upgrade to UnixWare 2 for only US$99, at a savings of up to US$295. This enables customers to get started with single-processor configurations now and save when they upgrade to the multiprocessor-capable UnixWare 2 Application Server.

Novell Offers Aggressive Upgrade Program

     UnixWare 2 Upgrades      Any UnixWare   UnixWare 1.1
                              1.1 Customer   Purchased
              After 11/1/94
     UnixWare 2 Application   $399           $99
     Server                   CD-ROM or      CD-ROM or
                              QIC-120 Tape   QIC-120 Tape
     UnixWare 2 Personal      $199 CD-ROM    $99
     Edition                  $249 QIC-120   CD-ROM or
                              Tape           QIC-120 Tape
     UnixWare 2 Online Data   $649           $649
     Manager                  CD-ROM or      CD-ROM or
                              diskette       diskette
     UnixWare 2 Server Merge  $99 diskette   $99 diskette
     UnixWare 2 Encryption    $49 diskette   $49 diskette
     Utilities
     UnixWare 2 Software      $99 CD-ROM     $99 CD-ROM
     Development Kit          $149 QIC-120   $149 QIC-120
                              Tape           Tape

UnixWare 2: More Powerful, Easy to Use and Manage

Industry-Leading Performance and Scalability--Building on the success of UnixWare 1.1 in delivering outstanding price/performance using industry-standard benchmarks, UnixWare 2 includes advanced features that further enhance and increase the performance on larger SMP platforms. Its symmetric multiprocessing supports 2 Intel processors "out of the box," and scales up (through incremental processor upgrades) to support the largest industry-standard Intel- based SMP machines available today, providing the flexibility and power IS managers require on industry- standard hardware. UnixWare 2 is a fully multithreaded operating system, increasing performance on both single- and multiprocessor systems.

The Most Network-Ready UNIX Available--UnixWare 2 is the ideal application server in NetWare environments because it provides built-in connectivity to NetWare servers, including access to NetWare file directories, exchanging e- mail and sharing printers in either direction. The product also includes TCP/IP and NFS, making UnixWare 2 an ideal Internet server and application server in either or both networking environments.

Ease of Installation, Administration and Use--With its intuitive menus, UnixWare 2 can be installed quickly and easily without the need for extensive configuration. The autodetection facility further simplifies installation by identifying platform and peripheral hardware with minimal user interaction. System administration is made easy with graphical facilities for adding/removing users, installing applications, backing up, and scheduling tasks. Performance management facilities allow administrators to easily view system information, monitor performance and tune the system.

Cost-Competitive Advantages--UnixWare 2 performance and scalability, combined with support for a wide variety of industry standard multiprocessing platforms from major vendors, provides customers with a significant cost advantage. UnixWare 2's ease of installation, use and administration, and scalability across a broad span of hardware platforms, also dramatically reduce the cost of ownership over the life of the system.

UnixWare 2 provides a high level of system availability and data integrity through the integrated journaling file system, which allows the system to easily recover from power failure without delay or significant loss of data. It is further enhanced by the optional UnixWare 2 Online Data Manager which offers mirroring, striping, and on-line backups. UnixWare 2 is a highly reliable platform for mission-critical computing, which means customers can deploy UnixWare 2 throughout their enterprise with confidence. UnixWare is also very secure, supporting C2 auditing, role-based administration and Access Control Lists (ACLs), among other security features.

UnixWare 2 Gains Industry Support

More than 1,000 independent software vendors have committed to support UnixWare 2, providing IS managers with thousands of leading-edge business solutions. Novell also has established relationships with leading hardware vendors to deliver high performance SMP platforms ready to run UnixWare, including those built to the Intel MP Spec 1.1. This new version will make it possible for companies to deploy powerful, fast UNIX-based applications for a fraction of the cost of proprietary systems.

Jim Watts, UNIX Business Manager for SAS Institute, a strategic UnixWare developer partner, said, "Novell, with the release of UnixWare 2, has combined the heritage of SVR4 and the power of SMP to create an ideal environment for the SAS System's enterprise-wide suite of business analysis software."

The business of Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL), is connecting people with other people and the information they need, enabling them to act on it any time, any place. Novell is the world's leading network software provider. The company's software products provide the distributed infrastructure, network services, advanced network access and network applications required to make networked information and computing an integral part of everyone's daily life.

Press Contacts:
Ren� Siegel                              Victoria Holl
PR+ for Novell, Inc.                     Novell, Inc.
ph:(510) 487-1212                        ph: (408) 577-7987
fax:(510) 487-1313                       fax: (408) 577-5350
rsiegel@aol.com

Novell, the N design, NetWare and UnixWare are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd. All other marks belong to their respective organizations.

UnixWare 2 Product Announcement Questions & Answers

1) What are the key enhancements in UnixWare 2 over UnixWare 1.1?

A:
1. Fully multithreaded: UnixWare 2 operating system, I/O subsystem, TCP/IP, NFS, IPX, and user level threads, to dramatically increase performance and scalability from small desktop machines to very large MIS SMP servers. UnixWare 2 Application Server (AS) and Personal Edition (PE) packages support dual-processor machines "out-of-the-box," with the AS expandable to many processors via simple Processor Upgrade kits.

2. Dramatically improved installation and configuration.Installation routines have been simplified, hardware detection automated, installation over LANs is more flexible (TCP/IP or IPX), setup of video monitors is graphical, and total install time is reduced significantly.

3. Improved PC LAN integration. Single login to UnixWare 2 and NetWare LAN, printer sharing from clients to either UnixWare or NetWare servers, built-in NVT2 DEC VT220 and Host Presenter terminal emulation for NetWare clients, access to more LAN cards via the NetWare ODI driver interface, NFS included in the Personal Edition.

4. Improved administration and management. Many enhanced graphical administration functions, graphical performance monitor and tuning, C2 Auditing included, MIB II compliant SNMP network management agent in both TCP and IPX networks, new Dynatext browser for on-line documentation, dynamic start-up and shut-down of processors in SMP configurations via the graphical interface.

5. Expanded hardware support. A broad array of Intel uniprocessor and SMP machines, including those designed for the Intel MP Spec v1.1, Corollary CBUS II, an other proprietary architectures. SMP platform support is simplified by a Platform Support Kit (PSK) which abstracts many interfaces and provides examples of working code for different implementations. Many new peripherals including ODI LAN adapters, high resolution video cards, CD ROM drives, SCSI adapters, sound cards, and many others.

2) What are the key competitive distinctions of UnixWare 2, especially with respect to Sun's new release (i.e., Solaris 2.4 for x86) and SCO UNIX?

A:
1. UnixWare 2 is easier to install and administer. UnixWare 2 installation is very easy, intuitive, fast, and flexible. The system can be installed from CD, Tape, or over a LAN from a UnixWare OR NetWare(R) server running TCP/IP or IPX. PC WEEK recently declared "We found this operating system easier to set up than Windows 3.1."

More administrative functions are performed via the graphical interface in UnixWare 2 than in the competition.

2. UnixWare 2 integrates better into PC LAN environments and UNIX operating system that is best integrated with NetWare. With TCP/IP, NFS, IPX, and other NetWare functionality built-in, UnixWare fits well in either environment and easily acts as an application server and information bridge between UNIX TCP/IP environments and NetWare IPX/SPX.

3. UnixWare 2 runs many more applications. As the next major release of the UNIX System V Release 4 (SVR4.2 MP) technology, UnixWare 2 is designed to maintain compatibility with both SVR4 Intel UNIX and SCO UNIX systems. This yields a catalog of more than 3,000 applications from nearly 1,200 vendors that will run on UnixWare 2.

4. UnixWare 2 offers greater performance and scalability.UnixWare 2's multiprocessing technology has been in development, testing, tuning, and optimization for Intel SMP platforms since 1991, when it was originally designed as SVR4 ESMP in cooperation with Sequent, Pyramid, and other industry leading SMP platform providers. The result is an operating system which offers outstanding performance and scalability that will be demonstrated to outperform the competition using industry standard independent benchmarks in cooperation with our partners. As an initial example of this power, Tricord Systems submitted a Tricord ES/4000 running AIM 7 benchmarks on a pre-beta version of UnixWare 2 last summer, and they were awarded a "Hot Iron Award" for "Best Throughput in a File Server" category.

5. UnixWare 2 is better value for the money. Integrated networking, better performance and scalability, ease of installation and administration, and support for thousands of applications, all translate into savings for the customer in time to install and learn, reduced technical expertise, freedom to choose multiple hardware and application solutions, and protection of investment in existing application and hardware environments.

3) How has NetWare integration increased, and what are the plans for further integration?

A: Single login to UnixWare 2 and NetWare LAN, printer sharing from clients to either UnixWare or NetWare servers, built-in NVT2 DEC VT220 and Host Presenter terminal emulation for NetWare clients, access to more LAN cards via the NetWare ODI driver interface. During 1995, NetWare file and printer sharing services and also the Novell Directory Service (NDS) will be implemented on UnixWare 2.

4) Which customers have taken delivery of UnixWare 2?

A: UnixWare 2 began shipping to OEMs and developers in December 1994. We are planning a series of separate announcements with our OEM partners over the next few months regarding their plans for UnixWare 2. The demand appears to be very strong from large end user accounts who see the multiprocessing capability providing them with a highly scalable, very cost-effective application server platform.

5) Why is UnixWare 2 shipping 3 or 4 months later than Novell announced last summer? (i.e., "UnixWare 2 will ship in December").

A: The English language version of the UnixWare 2 Application Server began shipping to OEMs and developers in December 1994, as promised. Versions of UnixWare 2 for other languages were always scheduled to ship in the first quarter of '95. A lot of work is under way to prepare Novell sales, support, technical training, distribution of demo systems, Resellers, NAEC education courses, and fully translated product in 5 languages (EFIGS), to ensure a successful launch of the final red-box distribution of the product via all Novell channels worldwide in March, 1995.

6) When will the J Version be available?

A: We are actively working with Novell Japan Ltd. to manage the production of the J product. It will ship within a few weeks of the EFIGS products.

7) Why did you ship to OEMs first and the to the broader distribution channel later? Was the product really ready?

A: OEMs generally require more time to ensure their product configurations and sales and support infrastructures. They are less dependent on Novell's readiness in the traditional distribution channel. We are working to make sure that we produce a product that can address a worldwide market in multiple languages, that our sales and support infrastructure is trained and ready, and that education courses for Novell NAEC are ready, before we begin broad distribution of the red-box product.

8) What is going to become of UnixWare 1.1? Will the product still be supported?

A: UnixWare 1.1 continues to be a very effective solution for many of our customers. We intend to continue to provide support and maintenance updates for UnixWare 1.1 during 1995. We have spent a lot of engineering attention to assure that UnixWare 1.1 applications will run unmodified on UnixWare 2 to ease migration. We have also incorporated an upgrade utility in 2 that preserves the UnixWare 1.1 system and data files while replacing the 1.1 OS with UnixWare 2. We are offering very attractive promotions to encourage customers to migrate to 2.0.

9) What will be the target market for UnixWare 2? Who wants it?

10) Explain your claim that UnixWare 2.0 is the next generation of SVR4 ?

A:UnixWare 2.0 is built on the UNIX SVR 4.2 MP kernel which was released by USL to OEMs in 1993. We have added significant networking, graphical administration, ease of installation, and hardware platform support, amongst other features, to produce UnixWare 2.0.

11) What OEMs are signed up for UnixWare?

A: ICL, Unisys, and Compaq have all announced plans for shipping UnixWare 2. We are working with many other prominent Intel-based OEMs that will be as these partners are ready to make public announcements.

12) Will UnixWare 2 pass X/OPEN branding?

A: We have already passed X/Open XPG4 Base branding. Most of the Spec1170 APIs have been implemented and this work will be completed in 1995.

13) What is Novell doing to prepare the channels for this product and the growing portfolio of Novell products?

A:Novell has long been the envy of the industry with its leading reseller distribution channels. We are actively developing and delivering training, support material, demo systems, etc., to prepare for the broad distribution of this product. We will be directly focusing on developing VAR, system integrator, and reseller relationships for UnixWare 2. In addition, UnixWare 2 will receive much greater acceptance in the OEM and ISV communities because of its increased performance and scalability.

14) What exactly is SuperNOS and what is the role of UnixWare in SuperNOS?

A: SuperNOS is a program to integrate NetWare, the leading networking services platform, with UnixWare, the leading application server platform into a single set of modular, configurable software. The first step in the process has already begun with NetWare technology being integrated in UnixWare 2, including IPX/SPX and ODI device driver support, and NetWare 4.1 implementing the same SMP threads technology as offered in UnixWare 2. Subsequent steps will involve integrating NetWare file and printer sharing and NDS with UnixWare and, ultimately, development of a common, modular, microkernel based architecture capable of supporting either NetWare or UnixWare services or both and configurable by the user.

15) How does UnixWare(R) 2 deal with the Pentium(R) floating point bug?

A: The best way for customers to remedy this problem is to contact Intel to obtain a FREE replacement Pentium processor. However, UnixWare 2 includes floating point emulation as a user-selectable feature. This allows customers who are unable to take advantage of Intel's free processor upgrade offer to protect their applications against the error. However, there is a small performance penalty for executing floating point intensive programs in memory when compared to the same function executing on the Pentium processor directly. Novell USG will shortly be releasing a software workaround as a fix to both UnixWare 2 and existing UnixWare 1.1 customers. This fix will allow floating point operations to execute on the Pentium processor, while trapping and correcting the error condition in the operating system in a manner transparent to the application.

16) How will Novell support Pervasive Computing now with NetWare and UnixWare and later with SuperNOS?

A: The network operating system will serve as the foundation for Pervasive Computing. Today's product offerings from Novell will continue to evolve and be built to support the kind of network applications and services that are needed for Pervasive Computing to become a reality. NetWare will continue to evolve as the best-of-breed network services platform and UnixWare will continue to evolve as the best-ofbreed application server platform. Pervasive Computing presents challenges not addressed by any offerings on the market today. Novell's SuperNOS initiative directly addresses those challenges. It will incorporate the best of what is available today, including UnixWare, NetWare, and new technologies. It will be a common code base for future versions of Novell's operating system product family.

17) Will SuperNOS be available in source form to current UNIX source OEMs?

A:Yes. The UnixWare source program embodies some components of SuperNOS today (for example, APIs, core NetWare services). Novell will continue to offer our system OEMs the source level support they need to productize SuperNOS on their hardware.

18) What common elements of UnixWare and NetWare will contribute to SuperNOS?

A: UnixWare and NetWare have common symmetric multiprocessing, common ODI support, as well as support for both SPX/IPX and TCP/IP. By the end of 1995, they will have common management, security, and directory services. In 1996, they will be fully distributed, fault tolerant and clustered. NetWare and UnixWare will be two separately sold specialized personalities of SuperNOS.

19) How will UnixWare fit into and evolve to support pervasive computing?

A: One of the key environments involved in Pervasive Computing is corporate data processing. UnixWare directly addresses this environment. It offers the best line-of-business application server platform. UnixWare will evolve to be very broadly scalable (including SMP), very highly distributed (including clustering and microkernel technology), and with an emphasis on reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS). It is cost effective as it runs on industry standard hardware. As such, it provides much of the enabling technology for Pervasive Computing.