The strategic alliance between Prime Computer and Novell Inc which the two companies want to develop into a close long term relationship (CI No 1,115) – should have its first products by the summer. Prime and Novell will jointly develop and market local area networks that incorporate Prime’s EXL Unix microcomputers and software from Novell’s Netware. Two products are to be developed; the first, due out in the second half 1989, will run NetWare on EXL hardware, and the second will involve Netware running under Prime’s Unix implementation for support of Netware and Unix tasks for MS-DOS, OS/2, Unix and Mac users. The products should be available in the second half of 1989 and first quarter 1990 respectively; the companies will initially target financial markets. Further afield, Prime and Novell will work on 32-bit local area network servers, X400 electronic mail, X25 communications protocols and Network File System gateways.
