a/ux announcment (long)

[William J. Sproule Jr.]

Just pulled this off of AppleLink (seconds ago......)


DALLAS, Texas. February 9, 1988. Apple Computer, Inc. today began
shipping A/UX(R), its implementation of the UNIX(R) operating system
for the Macintosh(R) II computer that merges strengths from the
Macintosh environment, including its intuitive user interface, with
the power of UNIX. Apple chairman and chief executive officer John
Sculley made the announcement in his keynote speech here at UniForum,
the international conference for the UNIX community.

UNIX is a powerful computer operating system which is most popular
among technical, computer-sophisticated users. A/UX preserves the
power of UNIX and adds Macintosh ease-of-use, bringing the benefits of
UNIX to more customers.

A/UX enhances the Macintosh II's role as a full-function workstation.
Users now have access to more than 3,000 Macintosh applications plus
new A/UX applications for tasks such as relational database
management, all from the same system.

A/UX complements the Macintosh operating system, and will be important
initially where UNIX is already popular, including the value-added
reseller channel, national accounts (especially engineering
environments), and government and higher-education markets.

Based on the most popular UNIX standards, including a full
implementation of AT&T System V.2.2 with Berkeley (BSD) 4.2 and 4.3
extensions, A/UX provides easy portability and networking.

"A/UX and the intuitive Macintosh user interface will expand the
number of users who can take advantage of the sophisticated UNIX
operating system," said John Sculley. "Apple's creation of A/UX has
been driven by requests from our customers in government, higher
education and other channels. It illustrates our commitment to
important standards, and to helping our customers get the most out of
their multivendor environments."

Developers Ready with A/UX Products

Developers can easily port existing applications based on System V.2.2
or Berkeley UNIX to run on A/UX.

Today more than 25 developers announced more than 50 A/UX-compatible
products, ranging from relational database and office-automation
applications to networking tools, languages and compilers, large
displays and tape drives.

The Macintosh Toolbox features, as defined in Macintosh read-only
memory (ROM), can be used to create the Macintosh user interface in
A/UX applications. Applications which follow Apple's programming
guidelines as published in "Inside Macintosh" will run on the
Macintosh operating system and A/UX.

Some of the applications have incorporated the Macintosh user
interface in first releases, and others are expected to switch to it
in future revisions.

"Apple made all the correct choices," said Norman Meyrowitz, associate
director of the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship
at Brown University. "A/UX provides all the capabilities of
UNIX--such as virtual memory, multitasking, interprocess
communication, shared network and relational databases--coupled with
all the capabilities of the Macintosh toolbox, which includes the most
consistent and friendly level of user interface."

A/UX Makes UNIX More Accessible

Designed for ease-of-use in both its user interface and system
administration, A/UX lets new groups of non-technical users reap
UNIX's benefits.

Apple ships A/UX systems with the operating system already loaded on
the hard disk drive of the Macintosh II. System administrators -- the
technical experts assigned to make the network and its workstations
run smoothly -- therefore do not need to load A/UX from tapes, unlike
most versions of UNIX.

A/UX is booted up from the Macintosh Finder by double-clicking on its
icon. Switching between A/UX and the Macintosh operating system takes
about 60 seconds.

A/UX also makes system administrators more productive, with its
auto-recovery and auto-configuration features which simplify
administration and improve the reliability of the system. These tools
let system administrators manage a large network of workstations, in
many cases remotely.

If an A/UX disk is damaged or otherwise not completely readable, an
auto-recovery option assures that the system will boot and operate on
the network by verifying the integrity of critical files and, if
necessary, restoring them.

Auto-configuration makes it easy for systems administrators and users
to change I/O devices, such as printers, by automatically
reconfiguring the A/UX kernel to keep track of network services.

Backing up UNIX systems, previously a cumbersome task, is accomplished
with an easy-to-use utility for tape back-up of the A/UX disk.

A/UX is based on System V with Berkeley extensions

A/UX is based on a complete implementation of AT&T System V.2.2. It
has passed all tests of the System V Validation Suite (SVVS), and
conforms to System V Interface Definition (SVID).

It includes extensions from BSD 4.2 and 4.3 for networking and easy
porting of Berkeley UNIX applications.

The Macintosh toolbox is implemented in A/UX, letting developers
integrate their applications with the familiar Macintosh user
interface to give their customers UNIX applications with Macintosh
ease-of-use.

Optionally, A/UX programmers will be able to develop on the X-Window
System, an emerging industry standard for network-based windowing,
offering portability among hardware platforms.

C, Bourne and Korn Shells are also included as are Documentors
Workbench (DWB), Programmers Workbench (PWB), and Adobe Systems
TranScript to provide PostScript(R) output on Apple's LaserWriter(R)
products from UNIX utilities such as DWB.

Sophisticated Workgroup Networking

A/UX networking capabilities complement the already-strong
connectibility of Macintosh, meeting the needs of multivendor
workgroups for file transfer, remote log-in, sharing of peripherals
and servers, and sophisticated file-sharing via NFS protocols.

Apple has included a full implementation of TCP/IP protocols from BSD,
and NFS (Network File System) protocols, subnets and domains,
networking standards which maximize Macintosh II functionality in
multivendor environments. Apple's EtherTalk(TM) Card connects the
Macintosh II directly to Ethernet networks.

A/UX also includes YellowPages, a licensed Sun Microsystems feature
for distributing file resources across a network.

Pricing

Apple is shipping a variety of A/UX systems, including two bundles for
convenient ordering.

The entry monochrome A/UX system, priced at $8,597, consists of a
Macintosh II with 2 Mbytes of RAM, a 12-inch monochrome monitor, 4-bit
video card, 80-megabyte hard disk loaded with A/UX, and PMMU. The
entry color A/UX system, at $9,346, differs only in its 13-inch color
monitor and 8-bit video card.

Apple expects the development system to be its most popular A/UX
system. At $8,399, this consists of a Macintosh II with 4 Mbytes of
RAM, 80-megabyte hard disk loaded with A/UX and PMMU, and gives the
customer freedom to choose an Apple or third-party

display. The development system with an Apple 12-inch monochrome
monitor, 4-bit video card and EtherTalk card is $9,996; with an Apple
13-inch color monitor, 8-bit video card and EtherTalk card it's
$10,745.

Current Macintosh II owners can upgrade their systems to run A/UX with
the A/UX upgrade bundle. It consists of an internal or external
80-megabyte hard disk with A/UX, PMMU and 4 megabytes of RAM, for
$4,879 (with internal drive) or $4,979 (with external drive).

Right-to-copy licenses are available in increments of 10, 25, 50, 250
and 1,000, so value-added resellers and national accounts may
re-distribute A/UX from a master disk.

The A/UX set of reference manuals is available as a separate product
for $649. Most customers want one set of manuals per workgroup, and
this gives them flexibility to buy their desired number of sets of
documentation.

Support and Distribution

Apple is offering a comprehensive, ongoing support program which
includes the A/UX update services, which provide regular software and
manual updates. Customers who pay for the update service also can
subscribe to the A/UX toll-free hotline, the first end-user hotline
from Apple. Subscribing customers can call Apple engineers trained on
A/UX.

Customer-activity reports give customers a complete history of their
calls. The toll-free hotline and tracking report is available for an
annual fee of $3,395.

A five-day support course and a one-day sales course for resellers are
being offered by Apple.

A/UX will be distributed through Apple's value-added resellers,
national accounts, government and higher-education channels and
through authorized A/UX dealers. Apple expects to authorize about 100
dealers initially, based on their ability to support A/UX customers.

Apple, the Apple logo, A/UX, Macintosh and LaserWriter are registered
trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. EtherTalk is a trademark of Apple
Computer, Inc. Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T Information
Systems. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems,
Incorporated. TranScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems,
Incorporated.

DISCLAIMER: I do not work for Apple, or sell their products...nor do I
speak for PSU, MISC, OMA, or anybody else for that matter. I'm just
providing some information. So there.