Part of the reason for Touche Ross & Co’s move to acquire UK software house Praxis Systems Plc (CI No 2,056) is the firm’s expertise in developing the ground-breaking Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format technology. Praxis has completed the initial version of an Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format installer for IBM Corp’s RS/6000 system. The UK software firm, based in Bath, already has an installer for the Sparc RISC chip under its belt – it used a Sun Microsystems Inc Sparc workstation running SunOS to do the job. Ideally, Praxis would like IBM to adopt the installer, turn it into a product and bundle it with the RS/6000, though it is far too early to say whether this might happen, says the firm’s Stephen Robertson. However if the likes of IBM and Sun Microsystems’ SunPro language and compiler unit were to turn the installers into products, then the Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format bandwaggon could really start to gather some momentum in the market, he believes.

ground-breaking

Praxis has other plans for government, defence and large corporate sectors. It has been subcontracted by Intermetrics Inc to define the mappings from Ada9X languages to Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format for the UK’s Defence Research Agency, whose Ten15 Distribution Format technology forms the basis of Architecture-Neutral Format. The work is an early step in the development of an Ada9X Distribution Format producer. An Ada9X producer will enable generation of Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format versions of programs sourced in Ada9X. These programs could then be installed and run on any machine for which a Distribution Format installer exits. The Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format has been positioned as a C-oriented technology in its initial guise, although isn’t language-specific, says Praxis. Indeed, the Defence Research Agency expects to provide support for Fortran90 through development of a Fortran90 producer. The Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format is conceived as a ground-breaking way of enabling software vendors to write, package and distribute one single version of an application to run unchanged on laptops, workstations, servers, mainframes, even supercomputers. Praxis argues that the Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format will eventually enable government, defence and other large information technology procurers to exercise a much greater degree of control over their suppliers, by separating hardware and software purchasing considerations. Currently, these kinds of customers are often forced into accepting a proprietary hardware system simply because a supplier doesn’t offer the desired software on any other type of kit. Specifying Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format alongside standards such as X/Open and GOSIP would enable users to fulfill their hardware and software requirements and gain greater leverage over suppliers in procurement deals, says Robertson. Getting the Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format out of the labs and into the industry is progressing in fits and starts. After a lengthy selection process, the Open Software Foundation chose the UK Defence Research Agency to supply core technology – known as the Ten15 Distribution Format – for the Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format effort, unveiled with the backing of Software Foundation members in June 1991.

By William Fellows

However earlier this year, lack of funds forced the Software Foundation to downgrade its Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format development and re-assign engineering staff to other projects in its stable. It continues to license Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format technologies and the Open Software Foundation research labs – in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Grenoble, France – are continuing their co-operative Architecture-Neutral work as part of the European Commission’s Open Microprocessor Initiative. It was left to Unix System Laboratories Inc to step in a few weeks later and take the reins of Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format by licensing the Ten15 technology from the UK Defence

Agency, saying it would turn it into a product in a future release of its Unix System V.4.2 operating system. Converted for the Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format via the relevant producer, an application – and there are distinct parallels between operating systems and applications in the Distribution Format scheme of things, says Praxis – is able to execute on any system with an Architecture-Neutral installer, which enables the code to be compiled. The technology’s token mechanism enables executables to take advantage of all the functionality specific to the target environment, without any loss of performance, according to Praxis. The Open Software Foundation currently ships Digital Equipment Corp VAX, MIPS Technologies Inc’s R-series, Sun Microsystems Inc Sparc, Intel Corp iAPX-86 and Motorola Inc 68000 installers as part of its Architecture-Neutral offering, and it is believed to have shipped snapshots of it to some 25 organisations. In addition to Praxis’s RS/6000 installer, versions for Digital Equipment Corp’s Alpha AXP chip and Hewlett-Packard Co’s Precision Architecture RISC architecture are thought to be under way. Although different installers are required for each system, there is considerable commonality of code between the installers, observes Praxis. Although a fault-tolerant Unix implementation would, for example, need a different installer from standard Unix System V.4 – they are not completely estranged. For testing purposes, Praxis says it ran Unix System V.4 through a C producer and generated an Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format version which it brought up on an ICL Plc DRS 6000 machine using its Sparc installer. The Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format version of Unix System V.4 performed slightly better than the Unix code generated by a native C compiler, the company claims. An Architecture-Neutral version of Informix’s Wingz spreadsheet, which runs to some 200,000 lines of code, has been tested on both Sparc and RS/6000 installers. Praxis says it took less time to install the Distribution Format version of the program than the 15 minutes it takes to compile the C sources of Wingz. An Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format version of the Oracle Corp database – some 1.3m lines of code – is currently under way and should provide a sterner test of claims for the technology.

Fundamental constructs

Public domain software such as GNU compilers have been converted for the Distribution Format, along with the Systems Performance Evaluation Council benchmarks and the Open Software Foundation’s Motif graphical user interface. The Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format does not change the fundamental constructs of software, and data can move between applications on different machines as far as it would ordinarily be able to do. Robertson expects some software vendors – the Oracles and Informix Software Incs of the world – to license the relevant producer and generate Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format versions of applications themselves, with some support from Praxis or the Open Software Foundation. Those with fewer internal resources are likely to contract the whole project out. All Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format intellectual property rights are owned by the Defence Research Agency, which has licensed its technology to the Software Foundation and Unix Labs. If a hardware or software vendor wants a licence, it can go to the Software Foundation or Unix Labs and strike a deal. Praxis is available for additional work. The vendor has rights only to any enhanced parts it may develop. The Defence Research Agency’s objective is to see the technology succeed rather than to generate short term income – and Robertson believes the chances are high. With the European Community, the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency backing it, momentum for Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format will be generated, he says.