HyperDesk Corp’s object-oriented Distributed Object Management System is not the only fish that IXI Ltd will be landing at UniForum next week – the Cambridge, UK-based company is also to unveil versions of its X.desktop manager for Digital Equipment Corp’s VMS operating system, as well as the firm’s latest OSF/1 iteration. The VMS implementation is the first non-Unix implementation IXI has undertaken, and it will be available to run under Open VMS, the Posix-compliant version of DEC’s proprietary environment in the second quarter, priced at UKP600. Open VMS, due this quarter, includes compatibility with versions 1 and 2 of the Posix specification plus stuff from X/Open’s XPG3 (and future XPG4) portability guides. Pretty much everything Unix has got except the system management stuff, is how DEC describes Open VMS. The Posix development effort has been carried out at DEC’s Italian operation. As well as the new OSF/1 version of X.desktop for DEC, the IXI graphical front-end is also available for the firm’s Ultrix Unix implementation on its MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC-based DECstations and the Santa Cruz Operation Inc’s Open Desktop bundle, which currently features on DEC’s Intel 80486-based Unix workstations. The VMS version means the interface is now available for DEC’s entire range of hardware, and though DEC does not currently market the IXI product itself, the company has hinted that once the Advanced Computing Environment agenda, currently riddled with technical and political differences, is finally set, that situation may change.
