Locus Computing Corp, Santa Monica, Calfornia is set to release its previously IBM-specific Transparent Computing Facility to the open market, it was revealed last week. Locus has submitted its TCF software to the Open Software Foundation in reply to the Foundation’s Distributed Computing Request for Technology, due to be discussed next week at a members meeting in Boston. Locus submitted TCF as part of a joint submission intended as a complete solution to the Request, in conjunction with IBM, Hewlett-Packard/Apollo and Transarc Corp. Part of the Foundation’s r conjunction with IBM, Hewlett-Packard/Apollo and Transarc Corp. Part of the Foundation’s requirements are that products are freely available for licensing on open systems. Transparent Computing Facility is a kernel add-on module to the operating system that has been used by IBM to implement transparent access between AIX-based RTs and PS/2 and mainframe systems. It supports fully transparent access to the file system, implementing a single tree structure over the network – very different from Sun Microsystems’ Network File System-based systems where each workstation has its own root.
