We understand that the proposed Common Inter-Object Request Broker Protocol – CIOP – will be based upon ICL Plc’s original gateway and protocol-level specification, derived from the UK firm’s DAIS object request broker framework. The CIOP was created in order to meet the Object Management Group’s CORBA 2 Object Request Broker-to-Object Request Broker interoperability requirements. Of the original submissions, only ICL’s approach encompassed both mechanisms. The CIOP, as it stands now, uses nothing from the Distributed Computing Environment itself, and we are told that Hewlett-Packard Co and Digital Equipment Corp are dissenting from the proposed specification for that reason. IBM Corp, it is understood, will accept a specification that includes an additional piece of Distributed Computing Environment specification, although it is worried that Hewlett-Packard and DEC do not intend to implement it themselves. If IBM does not get assurances, then this game is off and that piece of Distributed Computing Environment will not make it into the final specification.
