Orbix and SOM Interoperability Planned

IONA TECHNOLOGIES AND IBM COLLABORATE ON OBJECT TECHNOLOGIES

BOSTON, MA, May 8, 1996 . . . In a move that will fuel the growth of open,
distributed computing, IONA Technologies Ltd. and IBM announced today an
agreement to collaborate on their respective object technologies, with
particular focus on interoperability between IBM System Object Model (SOM)
technology and IONA's Orbix offering.

Through SOM technology, developers can build applications using software
components that may be deployed on different operating systems, or
residing in remote networks. Orbix, which runs on 20 operating systems,
enables developers to create networked, component-based applications that
can collaborate across multiple platforms. Orbix is a leading
implementation of the Object Management Group (OMG) Common Object Request
Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard for open object interoperability.

"IBM's collaboration with IONA will enable customers to build applications
with confidence that these applications will interoperate consistently,
based on the standards set by OMG," said John Slitz, vice president,
application development and object technologies marketing, IBM Software
Group.

"This relationship is an important step in realizing open, distributed
computing for the masses," said IONA Technologies' Chief Technical Office,
Annrai O'Toole. "Combining the strengths of IBM's SOM and IONA's Orbix,
with its breadth of platform coverage, provides the corporate developer
with a one-stop-shop for the creation of network-based client/server
software applications."

Chris Stone, president and CEO of OMG, commented on the announcement:
"CORBA is 'the glue' that ensures these applications will work together as
if created at the same time, as one complete solution," he said.
"Corporations employ an increasing range of technologies today in an
effort to get the best from their systems. It's great to see OMG members
working together to provide cross-platform CORBA solutions for their
customers."

Earlier this year, IONA announced its cooperation with BellSouth to port
Orbix to MVS Open Edition. Orbix for MVS interoperates with Orbix on 20
other platforms, enabling programmers to bring mainframe applications into
the client/server arena. IONA is also committed to supporting other IBM
technologies, including other releases of MVS, VisualAge for COBOL, CICS,
and IMS.

Based in Dublin, Ireland, and Boston, MA, IONA Technologies is the world's
leading provider of CORBA-conforming solutions. Its principal product,
Orbix, was launched in June 1993 as the first full and complete
implementation of the OMG's CORBA standard. Among the 20 operating system
platforms Orbix supports are: MVS Open Edition, OS/2, Windows 3.1, Windows
NT, Windows 95, Macintosh System 7.5, twelve different UNIX systems,
including AIX, OpenVMS AXP and the real-time operating systems VxWorks and
QNX. Orbix also supports multiple languages, including VisualAge C++,
Java, Ada95, and Smalltalk.

IBM, the world's largest software provider, creates, develops and
manufactures the industry's most advanced information technologies,
including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices
and microelectronics.

IBM offers complete information about the company, its products, services
and technologies through the World Wide Web. The IBM home page is at
www.ibm.com. The fastest, easiest way to get information about IBM
Software is to go to the IBM Software home page at www.software.ibm.com.
Information on IONA Technologies can be found at www.iona.com or by
subscribing to IONA's monthly newsletter, IonaSphere, by sending a request
to info@iona.com.

IONA Technologies, Inc.
201 Broadway, Floor 3, Cambridge MA., 02139.
tel: 617 679 0900, fax: 617 679 0910.
 
 =========================================================
 From the 'New Product News' Electronic News Service on...
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) and Delphi (GO COMP PROD)
 =========================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the
 company/author mentioned. For additional details, please
 contact them directly at the address/phone# indicated.
 Trademarks are the property of their respective owners!
 =========================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  USA
 Email:   rbakerpc@aol.com   --or--   rbakerpc@delphi.com
 =========================================================
