OS/2 Warp Weekly Newsletter - 1995-10-13
THE OS/2 WARP WEEKLY - A production of PSP Worldwide Marketing Support
Covering information relevant to OS/2 Warp and LAN Server
The 10/13/95 Issue (A real collector's item)
The OS/2 Warp Weekly and OS/2 Warp Monthly Newsletters are available on the Internet at http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/newsletters.html
Banking on OS/2 Warp
Banca Commerciale Italiana (Comit) in Italy has begun its rollout of a leading-edge banking information system based on OS/2. The bank has agreed to purchase 10000 client and 1600 LAN Server licenses.
Italy's leading business newspaper, "Sole 24 Ore," carried an interesting article in their September 29 issue detailing Comit's positive experiences with OS/2. Here's a brief excerpt from that article, roughly translated from Italian:
- The Bank's new applications, covering all of Comit's core business processes, have been developed using the client/server approach and are based on OS/2 Warp, IBM's latest 32-bit operating system, the DB2/2 relational database, and the middleware MQseries...
- Comit chose this solution as it needed a solid and complete platform on which to run the mission-critical applications that will be distributed to more than 10,000 users in the next 18 months...
- The new 4-tier client/server architecture (first level the host, second the server, third the client and fourth the smart card in the hands of the customer) will allow a simple and efficient delivery of the bank's services. An example? A customer will be able to cash in his checks easily and without any bureaucratic burden in Bari even if his current account is based in Vicenza...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Sumitomo Bank in Japan has purchased 400 OS/2 licenses to serve their 3000 desktop clients as part of a joint client system integration project with NEC to manage its domestic credit online system. The computer system, to be installed throughout Sumitomo's nationwide office network, will take about a year to be fully installed.
4 Million Candles on OS/2 Warp's First Birthday Cake
Since OS/2 Warp was launched one year ago, the product has chalked up impressive results around the world. Nearly 4 million copies of OS/2 Warp have been shipped in the last year and more than 125 software developers have announced plans to offer new native OS/2 applications, adding to the 2,500 OS/2 applications on the market today.
Major OS/2 successes worldwide during recent months include:
- September 1995: QBE Insurance in Australia, one of the largest general insurance companies in the country, announces plans to install OS/2 Warp in over 70 branches nationwide;
- September 1995: in the first weeks after it begins selling PCs preloaded with Windows95, German PC manufacturer Vobis reports 50 percent of its sales are of systems preloaded with OS/2 Warp;
- September 1995: NEC begins preloading its version of OS/2 Warp on its PC in Japan;
- September 1995: NationsBank starts second major regional development of its Model Banking system, a cross-state OS/2-based client/server application. Phase II sees up to 2,500 OS/2 clients and 400 servers brought online in Florida, joining the 1700 clients and 250 servers already in use throughout Georgia;
- August 1995: Compaq announces the availability of OS/2 Warp and OS/2 LAN Server 4.0 on SmartStart 2.3, the newest version of its preloaded tool for integrating and installing server software;
- August 1995: Chinese Ministry of Electronics Industry signs a Statement to use OS/2 Warp and endorses it as a preferred product - the first time China's MEI has endorsed a software product;
- June 1995: Data Control Informatica, an educational services firm in Brazil, orders 100,000 copies of OS/2 Warp to distribute through 47 schools across Brazil for training PC users;
- June 1995: Wachovia Corporation, one of North Carolina's largest banks, invests $30 million to standardize on an OS/2 Warp-based retail system network throughout 500 branches;
- May 1995: Japan's telecommunications giant NTT Corporation buys 20,000 OS/2 licenses and commits to an additional 20,000 to be rolled out through 1997.
OS/2 Warp has received 23 awards since its release last year, including InfoWorld Readers' Choice Product of the Year, PC Magazine No.1 for User Satisfaction, PC World Product of the Year, Byte Readers Choice Software Product of the Year and the just announced Best Operating System of the Year at the UK Computing Awards for Excellence. In total, OS/2 has won 70 industry awards since December, 1992, including editors choice awards, user awards and technical awards.
"It's been a great year for Warp," said Dan Lautenbach, IBM vice president, Personal Software Products division. "Our installed base is growing, with 10 million OS/2 users worldwide, in markets from small office and home users to large corporations with multiple-processor machines. We have aggressive plans for OS/2 Warp in 1996 as we continue to enhance this powerful and robust product family."
Now Available: FaxWorks Pro and FaxWorks Pro LAN for OS/2
Global Village Communication today announced that it is shipping version 2.0 of both FaxWorks Pro for OS/2 and FaxWorks Pro LAN for OS/2. FaxWorks Pro for OS/2, version 2.0 enables individuals to send, receive, annotate, and print faxes in the background of any OS/2, DOS or Windows application running under OS/2. FaxWorks Pro LAN for OS/2, version 2.0 enables users to share fax modems on OS/2-compatible LANs, including Novell, LAN Server, LAN Manager, and others.
Both products are 32-bit applications that provide users with a high-performance, multi-tasking fax communication solution. The new 2.0 versions take advantage of OS/2 Workplace Shell technology and are System Object Module (SOM)-compliant so users can more quickly and easily create and send faxes from any OS/2, DOS or Windows application running under OS/2.
Customers who have already purchased FaxWorks OS/2 or FaxWorks OS/2 LAN and would like to upgrade to version 2.0, may purchase upgrades directly from Global Village by calling either 800-FAXWORKS or 404-984-8088.
Virtual Pascal for OS/2
fPrint UK Ltd has announced a new product for OS/2, Virtual Pascal for OS/2, a 32 bit Pascal compiler compatible with Borland Pascal v7.0.
Virtual Pascal has been in development for more than two years, and development is now reaching its final stages. For developers who want to experience the product before shipment, scheduled for 1Q96, the company will conduct a limited Early Experience Program.
The feature set of the final shipping version of Virtual Pascal will probably include:
- Full BP7 compatibility wherever possible
- Integrated Development Environment very similar to BP7
- Borland Turbo Vision compatible library
- Borland OWL compatible library
- Optional Object Pascal extension compatibility
- Optional Borland Delphi compatibility
- Full access to most of the OS/2 API
- Fully integrated symbolic debugger, Turbo Debugger style
Please direct inquiries to fPrint at:
Phone: +44 (0181) 563 2359 BBS: +44 (0181) 563 8624 CompuServe: 100327,2035 Internet mertner@ibm.net
New Developers Kit Will Encourage Creation of OS/2 Applications
Willows Software announced a new technology that will allow MS Windows applications to be natively deployed on Mac, OS/2, and UNIX.
Willows's product, the TWIN Cross Platform Developers Kit (XPDK), allows developers who use the Windows API to take advantage of powerful features in other operating systems, and expand their target market to include the large installed base OS/2 users. Based on a single set of source code that can be compiled and linked for any target environment, TWIN XPDK allows developers to deliver cross-platform, full-featured applications, that run at native execution speed.
The TWIN XPDK Beta Program for OS/2 will be available for eight weeks beginning the week of October 9th. Participants in the TWIN XPDK Beta Program will have a head-start in easily deploying their most popular Windows applications on other desktop platforms including OS/2. Developers can register for the program on the Willows's Web-site at http://www.willows.com. The product is expected to be generally available in late fourth quarter of 1995.
HyperAccess for OS/2
HyperAccess for OS/2 is now available. This is the full-featured version of the HyperAccess Lite communications software included in the BonusPak for OS/2 Warp. It provides many heavy-duty features including:
- Additional terminal emulators
- Additional file transfer protocols including IBM TCPIP
- Convenient Host Mode for answering calls
- Network and LAN connectivity allows users to share ports and modems
- Huge library of on-line resources (1000s of up-to-date BBS numbers)
- Free bundled on-line utilities
- Full documentation and support including a complete manual
- The ability to view graphics as they are downloading.
- Supports COM 1-4 at 57.6 kb. (or 115.2 with included 3rd party drivers.)
- CommSense - automatically sets COM port values
- REXX API built in. Enables login scripts in non-proprietary language.
- Standard file transfer protocols plus HyperProtocol (fastest and most reliable method available)
For more information, call 313-243-0576 or visit http://www.hilgraeve.com.
WARP'D HUMOR
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