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September 20, 1996 Announcements

IBM Adds SMP Capabilities to Warp Server.

New OS/2 SMP Feature is Twice as Fast as Previous SMP Offering

IBM announced today at Networld+Interop a symmetric-multiprocessing (SMP) feature for OS/2 Warp Server Advanced. This offers significant performance enhancements and allows for consolidation of network servers, which reduces overall cost of ownership and simplifies network administration for customers.

IBM internal testing on Lotus Notes has shown that OS/2 Warp Server Advanced with SMP outperforms Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51 by more than 25 percent in capacity. The SMP feature will be available by the end of the month as a free upgrade to OS/2 Warp Server Advanced users.

Symmetric-multiprocessing provides support for more users by allowing software servers to exploit multiple processors with the same server software installed. The SMP feature for OS/2 Warp Server Advanced is optimized for 2-way and 4-way SMP systems, the dominant SMP platforms today, but has the ability to support up to 64 processors -- more than any other SMP offering in the market.

Previously published and certified results from NotesBench, Lotus' benchmarking tool for measuring Notes server performance, show that OS/2 Warp Server running on a uniprocessor has the ability to support 1,000 active Lotus Notes users. This already-impressive stability and performance has been further extended with IBM's newly announced support for SMP. IBM internal testing on a Compaq ProLiant 4500 4-way 133 MHz processor system indicates that OS/2 Warp Server Advanced with SMP is able to support 2,000 Notes mail users: 25 percent greater in capacity than Windows NT Server 3.51, which supports 1,560 Notes mail users on equivalent hardware, according to benchmark results published in May by Compaq Corp. These test results demonstrate that OS/2 Warp Server is an industry-leading platform for Lotus Notes servers on both uniprocessor and SMP hardware.

Benchmark results published by Compaq Corporation in June show that Windows NT Server 3.51 running on a ProLiant 5000 2-way 166 MHz processor can support 1,630 Notes mail users. IBM internal testing done on the same Compaq hardware shows that OS/2 Warp Server Advanced with SMP is able to support 1,800 users, outperforming Windows NT Server by more than 10 percent in capacity.

IBM plans to publish certified NotesBench test results of the SMP feature for OS/2 Warp Server Advanced on both IBM and Compaq hardware.

Improved Scalability and Performance

The scalability provided by the SMP feature for OS/2 Warp Server Advanced adds significant value to customers' investments in multiprocessor hardware. In July, Ziff-Davis Labs, using its ServerBench benchmarking tool, observed a 90 percent improvement in throughput when adding one processor, and a 300 percent improvement when adding three processors. There is also a marked improvement in speed. OS/2 Warp Server Advanced with SMP is 200 to 300 percent faster than OS/2 2.11 SMP for CPU-intensive functions such as database applications and application development. In addition, print performance with OS/2 Warp Server Advanced with SMP is three times faster than previous versions of OS/2.

Application Support and Performance Optimization Features

The SMP feature not only supports 32-bit SMP-enabled applications, but also offers increased performance for non-SMP applications. This allows customers to get the most out of their existing 16-bit OS/2, DOS and Windows applications, which are able to run across multiple processors, rather than running them in compatibility mode on a single processor, which causes a decline in performance.

The ability of OS/2 Warp Server to support complex server environments has been enhanced with the addition of new SMP optimization features. These include improved memory management, increased communications performance and capacity, performance software tools to aid in analysis, and new interfaces to enhance application performance. OS/2 Warp Server Advanced with SMP will be a leading application server platform for the IBM Software Servers.

Clustering for OS/2 Warp Server

In addition to delivering SMP support, IBM is focusing on providing even further enhancements in performance and distributed scalability for OS/2 customers with high availability clustering technology. As previously stated, IBM intends to leverage its expertise in high availability solutions on the RISC architecture and extend that technology to the Intel PC space with OS/2 Warp Server and other platforms.

The SMP feature will be available by the end of September as a free upgrade to OS/2 Warp Server Advanced users. Customers can access a request form on the World Wide Web or via fax at 1-800-IBM-4FAX, document number 5670.
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OS/2 Servers Gain Market Share.

OS/2 Warp Server Begins to Outpace Its Predecessor

IBM today announced that OS/2 servers grew worldwide market share from 14.1 percent to 15.2 percent from the end of 1995 through the first half of 1996, according to IDC. The strong performance of OS/2 servers was bolstered by the availability of OS/2 Warp Server at the end of February.

Market anticipation for Warp Server was so high that OS/2 servers increased share five percent in the second quarter over the first quarter of this year. IDC defines share as determined by the number of new shipments and upgrades, which totaled 178,100 OS/2 servers in the first half of this year.

OS/2 servers maintained the number two position in total server installed base, including both file and print serving and application serving, against Novell NetWare, and beat all UNIX systems combined. IBM also recorded the second highest percentage growth rate of shipments from the end of 1995 through the first half of 1996. In addition, OS/2 servers grew share in the U.S. to 15.2 percent in the first half of 1996, compared to 10.7 percent for the same period in 1995.

Some recent OS/2 server customer wins include: the State of California, which purchased 300 Warp Server licenses; Banca Commerciale Italiana in Milan, which bought 1,600 Warp Servers; Dean Witter, which is rolling out 900 Warp Servers; Comerica Bank, which purchased 270 Warp Server licenses; Furrs-Bishops Inc., which is running Warp Server in 125 stores across 13 states; and Trustmark National Bank, which is upgrading all of its servers to Warp Server. These installations demonstrate the strength and breadth of Warp Server to satisfy customer needs ranging from small business applications to mission-critical operations.
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IBM to Begin Worldwide OS/2 Warp 4 Marketing Campaign.

IBM's launch of OS/2 Warp 4 next week marks more than the advent of an exciting new product. It also kicks off a well-coordinated and integrated marketing campaign designed to encourage information technology professionals, telecommuters and early adopters of technology to take a serious look at IBM's newest member of the OS/2 operating system family.

"Our mission is to back this outstanding product with an aggressive integrated marketing campaign designed to help businesses understand the key role OS/2 Warp 4 can play in their success," said Donn Atkins, vice president of marketing for IBM Personal Software Products. "Each communication piece was designed as part of an overall program to educate and inform our customers, as well as offer them the opportunity to experience the product through an interactive demo CD-ROM."

Incorporating IBM's VoiceType voice recognition technology, OS/2 Warp 4 will be the first PC operating system solution to allow users to talk to their computers. This means users will be able to surf the Internet and dictate email hands-free. OS/2 Warp 4 also comes with the networking and Internet functionality needed to connect users to their data. And it includes IBM's OS/2 implementation of Sun Microsystems' Java** technology, so users can run Java applications from the computer desktop without an Internet browser. These capabilities will be key in helping users run their businesses in today's client/server environment and in transitioning them to the network computing environment of tomorrow.

Campaign elements include print advertising, direct mail and electronic marketing via the World Wide Web. It targets early adopters of technology from IT professionals to business department heads. "The campaign will highlight OS/2 Warp 4's new features and how they combine to fundamentally provide a better computing experience for the user," said Joanne Meleski, OS/2 Warp worldwide campaign manager for the IBM Software Group.

Created by Ogilvy & Mather, the ads present routine and mission-critical business scenarios and then explain how OS/2 Warp 4, with its speech recognition, Internet and networking power, helps accomplish the task at hand. Scenarios include a business professional sending email via voice to a colleague while working on other projects, and a doctor pulling up a patient's medical records while reviewing an X-ray.

Each ad concludes with an invitation to visit the OS/2 Warp web site for more information, or to call a 1-800 number to receive a free copy of an interactive CD-ROM designed to provide prospects with a live managed trial of the product. Customers can also order the demo CD from the OS/2 Warp web site.

The first wave of print ads will begin on September 23, in conjunction with the product launch. They will run in high-profile computer and business publications and targeted web sites. Buying space on the web keeps with the trend IBM started with the aggressive Just Add OS/2 Warp campaign, for which the company won an award for Most Innovative Use of Media by Media Week magazine last year.

Direct mail will be used as the primary vehicle to keep consistent information in front of the customer -- both before and after the purchase. Leveraging the same look and feel as the advertising, the direct mail campaign will be targeted at both the current OS/2 installed base, as well as prospects, and will highlight additional business reasons why OS/2 Warp 4 is the ultimate network computing solution.

OS/2 Warp 4 will be available September 25, and pricing will be announced at that time.
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OS/2 Warp 4 Pricing from J3.

J3 Computer Technologies (http://www.os2store.com), Your OS/2 Software Source, announces pricing for OS/2 Warp v4:

OS/2 Warp v4 Full US$180.00

OS/2 Warp v4 Upgrade US$110.00

Get either Partition Magic or System Commander for $60.00 when you purchase OS/2 Warp v4.0 Visit J3's Web site for ordering details.
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Smalled v1.4 Now Available.

Smalled 1.40 Is a good looking high powered 32 bit multi threaded PM editor.

Features are:

Smalled is 18$ Shareware and can be found on the BMT Micro site, on HOBBES, LEO and other anonymous sites.
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PMICS v2.1.1 Available.

Version 2.1.1 of PMICS - The Internet Chess Client for OS/2 Warp - has been released. This is a maintenance release which fixes bugs in V2.1 and adds a small number of minor new features. All version 2 releases of PMICS are freeware.

Features

Requirements Download Locations PMICS V2.1.1 has been uploaded as 'pmics211.zip' to the following ftp sites:

FICS
Hobbes
Walnut Creek

For the latest news, information and code updates to PMICS, check in regularly to the PMICS Home Page.
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Cybercom Announces AccuCount/2 Suite.

CYBERCOM, a member of IBM's Solution Developer Program, announced AccuCount/2, their upcoming business management and accounting software suite for OS/2.

Designed to exploit many of the new features in OS/2 Warp 4 (code named "Merlin"), as well as run smoothly on earlier versions of OS/2, Cybercom is positioning their AccuCount/2 product line to effectively fit the accounting and business management needs of the small to mid sized business community.

Cybercom has been working with developers and support staff from IBM's OS/2 Warp 4 development team as well as developers of other products to produce a true 32bit OS/2 business management and accounting application that is fully integrated with OS/2 Warp 4 and other products such as FaxWorks (Lite or Pro) for OS/2.

Cybercom plans on taking advantage of OS/2, including many of the new features in OS/2 Warp 4 in various ways including exploiting OS/2's truly object oriented interface, threading support as well as OS/2 Warp 4's networking and Voice Navigation.

Releasing AccuCount/2 as a suite of scalable products, Cybercom intends on allowing users to purchase the base package (which in itself is a complete business management tool) and add various modules and features to tailor the application to fit greater or custom needs.

AccuCount/2's first release will include complete accounting and business management features including Banking, General Ledger & P/L, Invoicing, Purchasing, Billing, Collections, Inventory Management and Reporting. Shortly after the base package is released, a Payroll module will be sold as an upgrade. Cybercom plans on introducing a multiuser version within 3 months of the base package's release. It will include all the functionality of the base package, payroll module and full multiuser capabilities, allowing users to carry on any task on any workstation, as well as use any resource available to their station for such tasks as printing checks or invoices.

"In addition to being feature competitive or superior to similar DOS and Windows based packages, our software efficiently uses many features found only on OS/2, such as multithreading and multiple processes, true object oriented drag-n-drop, VoiceType Navigation, thread management and multiuser/multi-station support through the use of OS/2 Warp 4 and our multiuser version of AccuCount/2," added Mauro.

Cybercom will release AccuCount/2 as a single user package (with optional payroll module) and a multiuser version (with payroll included). Later various add-on modules will be released to satisfy custom business needs. A few of the planned add-ons are Point of Sale, Barcoding/Inventory Control and shipping assistance (UPS, FedEx and Postal Rate pricing) modules. In addition to providing modules that support other needs such as P.O.S., Cybercom will be implementing support for related hardware so they or other solution providers can create integrated hardware/software solutions for their clients. Support is planned for various barcode readers, receipt printers, cash drawers, scanners, magnetic stripe readers, laptops, computer based Caller I.D. units (to speed up order processing and collections) and touchscreens.

Release of AccuCount/2 and AccuCount/2 add-on modules is scheduled to begin late Q4 1996 and continue into Q2 1997 with modules being released upon completion and sucessful beta testing. As well as a tight release schedule and planned strategy for AccuCount/2 and the expansion modules, Cybercom will be continuously adding features, updating the base package and writing new or improving existing modules.

For more information, view Cybercom's web page or email Cybercom or call (703) 892-1888.
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