purcell@jjflash.Eng.Sun.COM (Jack Purcell) (04/18/91)
The source code for TIRPC has been placed upon the Internet at uunet.uu.net in the directory networking as file tirpcsrc.tar.Z and titan.rice.edu in the directory incoming and may be moved into the sun-source directory at some time in the future. The following announcement was made March 27, 1991. SUN INTRODUCES TRANSPORT-INDEPENDENT REMOTE PROCEDURE CALL TECHNOLOGY Free Source Code Available Via Internet SAN JOSE, Calif. -- March 27, 1991 -- Sun Microsystems today announced at Connectathon '91 that system vendors and software developers can get source code for Sun's new transport independent-remote procedure call (TI-RPC) technology for free over the Internet. The new TI-RPC is compatible with the existing ONC(TM) RPC but permits applications to be insulated from the underlying network transports. This means that, for example, applications written for TCP/IP networks will run unmodified over OSI-based networks, thereby greatly easing the migration from today's standards to emerging OSI standards. TI-RPC is the first open transport-independent RPC technology available today. It was co-developed by Sun and AT&T and is the remote procedure call technology included in UNIX(R) System V Release 4. Sun's implementation of TI-RPC is transport independent because it is written on top of AT&T's transport layer interface (TLI), which is functionally similar to the X/Open(TM) transport interface (XTI). These interfaces allow applications to run across different network transports, independent of the operating system. Because ONC is currently available for every major operating system, including DOS, VMS, MVS, VM, OS/2 and MacOS, the broad availability of TI-RPC will encourage the development of distributed applications. Included with the TI-RPC code is an enhanced version of Sun's rpcgen, a high-level compiler that is used by software developers to simplify the writing of distributed applications. It allows programmers to specify the interface between the client and server portions of their application, automatically generating the RPC routines needed to run the application. ONC is currently the most widely installed distributed computing platform, with an installed base of more than 1.3 million nodes, "which is partly because Sun has licensed ONC/NFS on reasonable terms and made RPC source code freely available," said Bill Keating, Sun's director of corporate technology marketing. Vendors that support TI-RPC include Netwise, with its RPC TOOL compiler, Novell and all UNIX SVR4 licensees. The TI-RPC source code released today by Sun is identical to the RPC code in SVR4, with the addition of an asynchronous call facility. The code can be compiled and run on any SVR4-based system with minimal porting effort. Vendors who want to port TI-RPC to any non-SVR4 platform should include either a TLI or XTI in their product. Sun also provides software that enables the TI-RPC code to run under SunOS(TM) 4.1, allowing companies to use Sun systems as a platform for distributed application development. Sun will grant licenses for TI-RPC source code without charge. The code can be downloaded from Internet archives at no cost or obtained directly from Sun. Connectathon '91 is the world's largest demonstration of applied networking among heterogeneous systems. This year, 73 vendors are testing a total of 112 implementations of ONC/NFS and the X Window System. The sponsors of Connectathon '91 include Network General, Cabletron, Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. ### NFS is a registered trademark and SunOS and ONC are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. X/Open is a trademark of X/Open Company, Ltd. All other products mentioned herein are identified by the trademarks as designated by the companies who market those products. Inquiries concerning such trademarks should be made directly to those companies. PR contact: Carol Sacks (415) 336-0521 7.jjflash.purcell: