Ravaged Groupe Bull SA, staring gigantic losses for 1990 in the face, is betting its future on what it is calling its Distributed Computing Model, first outlines of which were unveiled at Hannover yesterday. The Model is said to comprise the specifications for open enterprise-wide business computing systems and a roadmap way to Enterprise Computing by 1995. It is claimed to define structures, protocols and interfaces, and it is being demonstrated at Hannover, where technology partners like Microsoft Corp, Oracle Corp and Ingres Corp are endorsing it. Despite Bull’s assertion that it provides details and specifications, it is still largely conceptual, focusing on the ends rather than the means. Based on the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment, the Model’s components are Applications; Application Services; Communication and System Services; Integrated System Management and Security; and Application Development. The model is to be implemented in three phases, and the first is Workgroup Computing, to be introduced during 1991, where workgroups throughout an organisation will be connected to a mainframe, Bull or otherwise. The second phase, scheduled for 1992, is Distributed Departmental Computing. Products to be made available next year are claimed to add new functionality to distributed Unix-based systems, extending the infrastructure of workgroups and including Open Software Foundation Distributed Computing Environment technologies. Bull says that phase three, 1993 to 1994, is the timeframe for extending capabilities and applications for the distributed information system. Bull says there will be int er-operability be tween GCOS 6, GCOS 7 and GCOS 8, Unix kit and multi-ven dor workstations.
