NeXT ships PDO-Portable Distributed Objects-for HP 9000 Servers
Customers gain state-of-the-art desktop to data center solution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Karen Logsdon
NeXT Computer, Inc.
415/780-3786
NeXT SHIPS PDO-PORTABLE DISTRIBUTED OBJECTS-
FOR HP 9000 SERVERS
Customers gain state-of-the-art desktop to data center solution
LAS VEGAS-November 15, 1993-NeXT Computer, Inc. today announced
it is shipping PDO-Portable Distributed Objects-for
Hewlett-Packard Company's HP 9000 servers. PDO is the first
product to be released from the companies' recently announced
Object * Enterprise relationship. Object * Enterprise combines
NEXTSTEP, NeXT's object-oriented software, with the HP 9000
product family, providing a scalable solution for client/server
development based on a common object-oriented framework.
NeXT also announces that it plans to ship NetInfo for HP-UX in
the coming month as the second product from Object *
Enterprise. Developed by NeXT and Xedoc, the leading portable
NetInfo consulting group, NetInfo for HP-UX is a flexible and
extensible database system for distributed system and network
administration.
PDO is the first industry product to provide a heterogeneous
client/server framework based on objects, and does so by
extending the same seamless object model and messaging
architecture that NEXTSTEP customers already use for local and
distributed objects. NeXT's PDO for HP 9000 business servers
running HP-UX 9.0 provides a framework for developing and
deploying object-oriented applications across the enterprise,
delivering state-of-the-art desktop to data center solutions.
"NeXT continues to lead the industry in object-oriented
solutions by extending its object model and object messaging
architecture to server environments with PDO," said Steven P.
Jobs, Chairman and CEO of NeXT. "We are building the
foundation upon which customers can quickly and easily develop
sophisticated client/server applications that scale to meet the
needs of the enterprise, not just small workgroups. We believe
providing a uniform and seamless object model in a networked
environment is the key to unlocking the benefits of
client/server computing."
"PDO is a major step in enabling our customers to develop and
deploy object-oriented, client-server applications across the
enterprise," said Ruann Ernst, marketing director of HP's
Financial Services Industry Group. "Customers, especially in
the financial services industry, will benefit from the
combination of NeXT's advanced object-oriented framework and
HP's expertise in desktop to data center products and worldwide
service and support."
Customers attest to PDO's productivity for enterprise computing
With PDO, The First National Bank of Chicago will be better
able to take full advantage of their client/server architecture
by off-loading compute intensive processes to the computers
best suited for the task. "PDO allows us to run our
object-oriented applications on the fastest systems available,"
said Matt Peron, officer at The First National Bank of Chicago.
"Our processing demand is increasing rapidly, particularly in
the derivatives area, and PDO will enable us to keep up with
the demand."
"Swiss Bank Corporation plans to use PDO to run theoretical
models for trading, enabling traders with NEXTSTEP client
systems to improve their ability to make real-time investment
decisions. With PDO, the location of the custom analytic
object is independent of the application design and
deployment," said Dwight Koop, executive director, Swiss Bank
Corporation.
According to John Keazirian, executive vice president at
NationsBanc-CRT, "PDO brings us the best of both worlds for
servers because it allows us to extend the rapid development
environment beyond the NEXTSTEP client and lets server machines
continue to offer the high range of availability, data
integrity, network management tools, process controls and
security capabilities that our business requires."
Since PDO extends the object-oriented programming paradigm to
heterogeneous servers, developers creating applications in this
environment enjoy all of the benefits of object-oriented
programming, such as fewer lines of code in development, higher
reusability of software and greater maintainability and
reliability of software systems while tapping the performance,
centrality of data, and other features of high powered
enterprise servers.
Developing products to meet industry standards
Currently, NEXTSTEP, NeXT's object-oriented software, runs on
industry-standard Inteli 486- and Pentiumi-based PCs and
delivers support for distributed, object-oriented programming
across networks of NEXTSTEP-based computers. With NEXTSTEP's
object technology, objects transparently send messages to other
objects running within the same application. NEXTSTEP's
distributed object technology allows the same transparent
messaging to occur between objects resident in different
applications, whether the applications are running on the same
machine or across the network.
This messaging allows greater reusability of objects, by
providing a framework for applications to share common objects
within a networked environment. PDO provides even greater
reusability of software, by allowing these objects to exist in
non-NEXTSTEP environments, such as an HP 9000 series 800 server
running the HP-UX operating system.
Today, PDO provides interoperability between NEXTSTEP clients
and server environments. In the future, PDO will allow
interoperability between NEXTSTEP and emerging distributed
computing standards, such as OMG's CORBA (Common Object Request
Broker) and DCE (Distributed Computing Environment).
"As part of the NeXT/HP Object * Enterprise initiative to bring
object-orientation to enterprise computing, we plan to work
together to define a strategy for interoperability at the
object level," said Rick Jackson, director of product marketing
at NeXT.
Pricing and Availability
PDO for HP servers as part of the Object*Enterprise suite of
solutions is shipping. PDO Release 1.0 for HP-UX 9.0 has
tiered pricing based upon HP's server software pricing model.
PDO for Departmental Servers is $2,500, for Branch Servers is
$5,000 and for Corporate Servers is $10,000.
Product Description Server Type List Price
PDO Release 1.0 for HP-UX 9.0 HP Workstation Server Model 715
or $2,500
Department Servers 725; Series 800 Models F or G Class
Server.
PDO Release 1.0 for HP-UX 9.0 HP Workstation Server Model 735
or $5,000
Branch Servers 755; Series 800 Models H or I Class Server.
PDO Release 1.0 for HP-UX 9.0 HP 9000 Corporate Business
Servers. $10,000
Corporate Servers
About NeXT Computer, Inc.
NeXT develops and markets the award-winning NEXTSTEP
object-oriented software for industry-standard computer
architectures. Customers use NEXTSTEP to develop and deploy
custom client/server applications, using both custom and
shrink-wrapped software. Headquartered in Redwood City,
California, and with offices throughout the world, NeXT serves
customers requiring enterprise-wide, object-oriented
productivity environments.
About HP
Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Hewlett-Packard Company is the
third-largest computer supplier in the United States, with
computer revenue in excess of $12 billion in its 1992 fiscal
year.
Hewlett-Packard is an international manufacturer of measurement
and computation products and systems recognized for excellence
in quality and support. The company's products and services
are used in industry, business, engineering, science, medicine
and education in approximately 110 countries. HP has 94,900
employees and had revenue of $16.4 billion in its 1992 fiscal
year.
# # # #
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Objects and the PDO logo are registered trademarks of NeXT
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