IBM ENHANCES SOMOBJECTS DEVELOPER TOOLKIT WITH ADDITIONAL PLATFORM SUPPORT

AUSTIN, March 17, 1994 . . . IBM's Personal Software Products (PSP)
division today announced that it has enhanced its SOMobjects Developer
Toolkit, the professional programming toolkit that incorporates IBM's
System Object Model (SOM) and Distributed SOM (DSOM) technologies. In
addition to support for the OS/2 and AIX environments, with this
announcement the SOMobjects Developer Toolkit is now available for
Microsoft Windows platform.

When it becomes generally available on April 29, 1994, SOMobjects for
Windows will initially provide support for C and C++, including Microsoft
Visual C++, Symantec C/C++, Borland C/C++ and Watcom C++. A number of
other vendors, including ParcPlace Systems, Inc., Netlinks Technologies,
Inc. and Easel Corp. have announced that their Windows programming tools
will begin supporting SOM and DSOM later this year.

SOMobjects classes can be used from Microsoft's Component Object Model
(COM). SOMobjects for Windows will provide a key development environment
for the OpenDoc compound document architecture, when OpenDoc is released
later this year. This will enable developers to use SOMobjects for Windows
to create OpenDoc applications, and also provide access to SOM/DSOM
objects from COM Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 2.0 components.

The SOMobjects Developer Toolkit provides developers with the technology
needed to break the language barriers that have severely limited the
commercial use of object-oriented programming to date. With SOMobjects,
object classes created using a wide range of popular object-oriented
programming tools can interoperate and use a common set of class
libraries. Code can be easily reused in binary form, realizing a primary
benefit of object-oriented programming.

More than 18 tool providers, including industry leaders such as Digitalk,
MetaWare Inc., Objective, Inc., ParcPlace Systems, Inc. and WATCOM
International Corp., have announced their support for IBM's SOM and DSOM,
with over 14 tools scheduled to be available this year. Simultaneous with
this SOMobjects for Windows announcement, Symantec, Intelligent
Environments, Inc., Netlinks Technologies, Inc. and Easel Corp. have all
announced their commitment to license IBM's technology and offer products
that integrate SOM and DSOM. (See separate release).

Through the integration of IBM's DSOM technology, SOMobjects also allows
programmers to create dynamic distributed object applications in
multi-platform client/server environments. SOMobjects is the first
cross-language, cross-platform implementation of the Object Management
Group's Common Object Request Broker Architecture (OMG's CORBA), including
OMG's Interface Definition Language (IDL).

"SOMobjects is quickly being accepted by programmers as a key enabling
technology for object-oriented computing, and the expansion to Windows is
another major step forward," said Cliff Reeves, director of IBM PSP's
Object Technology Products group. "With three major platforms for
developers to choose from, the support of leading tools vendors, and close
integration with the emerging CORBA and OpenDoc specifications, we're in a
position to help developers create a world of software components that can
be used to create powerful, customized mission-critical applications with
unprecedented speed and ease."

SOMobjects for Windows will enable developers to create OpenDoc
applications when OpenDoc becomes available. OpenDoc is an open,
cross-platform software architecture designed to simplify the sharing of
complex documents. Apple Computer, Inc. is building OpenDoc using IBM's
SOM technology, and OpenDoc has initial support from IBM, Apple Computer,
Wordperfect Corp., Taligent, Inc., Novell, Xerox and Oracle. Either the
SOMobjects Developer Toolkit or a programming tool that integrates
SOMobjects support can be used to create OpenDoc applications.

Through the inclusion of bindings for Microsoft's COM, SOMobjects for
Windows allows SOM object classes to interoperate with Microsoft's OLE
2.0. With SOMobjects for Windows, SOM objects can be accessed through the
COM interface. This allows COM components to be built using SOM
technology, and enables OLE and COM components to access objects built
with SOM. Through this capability, SOMobjects offers developers using OLE
2.0 access to CORBA-compliant objects in a distributed environment.

The purpose of SOM and DSOM technology is not to replace existing
programming languages, but rather to offer developers an architecture in
which they can define and manage binary class libraries of object-oriented
software, as well as to provide object-oriented operating system
interaction. Programmers describe the interfaces of their object classes
using a standard IDL, then implement methods in their preferred
object-oriented programming language, or even using traditional procedural
code.

SOM is language-neutral, preserving key object-oriented characteristics
such as encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism, even when the user
and implementor of a SOM class are written in different programming
languages. SOM can also accommodate changes in implementation details, and
in certain facets of the class' interface, without breaking the binary
interface to the class library and requiring programs to be recompiled.

SOMobjects DSOM technology builds on SOM's strengths to provide support for
object interactions across multi-platform networks. Development of
distributed, object-oriented, multi-platform applications is facilitated
by making the network transparent to communicating objects. DSOM
implements the dynamic and static interfaces specified by the OMG's
CORBA.

The SOMobjects Developer Toolkit for Windows includes these major
components: SOM/IDL Compiler (OMG CORBA IDL); Distributed SOM; language
bindings for C and C++; Emitter Framework; Frameworks for Collection
Classes, Replication and Persistence; COM bindings; and a CORBA interface
repository.

The SOMobjects Developer Toolkit for Windows will be generally available on
April 29, 1994 for $365. The IBM SOMobjects Workstation Runtimes package
allows execution of the SOM-based applications on a single machine
environment, and will be available for $75. The SOMobjects Workgroup
Runtimes package, which enables executing SOM-based distributed
applications across a workgroup LAN, will be available on June 30, 1994
for $235. All products are available from IBM by calling 1-800-342-6672,
or through an authorized IBM remarketer. In Canada, call 1-800-45-7999 for
more information.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, IBM Personal Software Products division is
an industry leader in the development of operating systems and networking
products for personal computers. In 1992, IBM introduced OS/2 Version 2.0,
a leading 32-bit multitasking operating system for the PC. Today, PSP
develops, manufactures and markets a wealth of software, including
operating systems, LAN systems, object technology, multimedia and pen
products.

International Business Machines Corporation
IBM United States
1133 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, New York 10604

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