SunSoft, the new Sun Microsystems Inc subsidiary, is formally launching its first product, ToolTalk, this week aimed at application interoperability in distributed computing environments. The software, which has been 18 months in development, six weeks in beta test and is said to have attracted 100 developers, is meant to ease communication between Unix applications on a network. It is said to be part of a comprehensive software environment that SunSoft will unveil later this year. ToolTalk components include an applications programming interface, library and communication service which hooks into an RPC. Currently SunSoft has it implemented on Sun’s Open Network Computiing Remote Procedure Call but its future implementation on other remote procedure calls is hinted at by SunSoft officials who decline to discuss what they call the distribution mechanism until the fourth quarter, when pricing and system availability will be revealed. ToolTalk is to be demonstrated this week by the CAD Framework Initiative, the consortium that defines computer-aided design standards, at the Design Automation Conference in San Francisco running on heterogeneous hardware from Digital Equipment Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp, Intergraph Corp and Sun, all strapped together via Open Network Computing. Cadence Design Systems Inc, Harris Scientific Calculation and Viewlogic Corp will show their applications transparently communicating with one another. The product is not limited to Unix but will work on any multi-tasking operating system, its handlers say. It is meant to operate above the remote procedure call level and insulate the user from needing to know where the data is. ToolTalk is intended to handle both the older procedurally-based applications that form the mass of products available today today as well as the up-and-coming object oriented ones by communicating via multicast and object oriented messaging. ToolTalk has already garnered endorsements from Lotus Development Corp, Valid Logic Systems, Clarity Inc, Cadre Inc, IDE, Saber Software Inc and Sweden’s Ellemtel Telecom Laboratories AB.
