Tiara and Sitka Strike Technology Agreement
DALLAS — October 14, 1991 — A cooperative technology agreement has been signed by Sitka Corp. and Tiara Computer Systems Inc., the two companies announced Monday.
As a result, Sitka's customers will have immediate access to the 10NET 5.0 peer-to-peer network for their Windows and DOS-only environments and Tiara's 10NET customers will pick up Macintosh, Sun and PenPoint connectivity late in 1992.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sitka has licensed the 10NET 5.0 technology as well as resale rights to the product worldwide. Portions of 10NET, in combination with existing TOPS technology, will become an important building block for the suite of OpenTOPS cross-platform networking products Sitka will release late in 1992.
To provide cross-platform capabilities to its 10NET customers, Tiara plans to obtain OpenTOPS for integration into their own product line at a later date.
The peer-to-peer networking customers that make up a combined installed base of over 1.3 million will have a migration path to the new OpenTOPS architecture from their existing MacTOPS, DosTOPS, PenTOPS and 10NET networks.
The 10NET 5.0 technology will enable OpenTOPS to be based on both SMB (Server Message Blocks), the filing protocol standard established by Microsoft and IBM, and NetBEUI, the API (Application Programming Interface) used by many electronic mail systems and workgroup applications.
OpenTOPS will be available with NetBEUI and AppleTalk protocol stacks for optimizing the cross-platform network in multiple computing environments.
''We bought 10NET Communications because we knew the potential of the product's open standards architecture and true Windows functionality,'' said Andrei Glasberg, Tiara chief executive officer. ''With cross-platform capabilities added to 10NET, our customers can link all of their PCs — this is true peer-to-peer functionality.''
''We were attracted to Tiara as a technology partner because 10NET is a mature, standards-based DOS/Windows solution. It pairs low memory requirements with high performance and it is the most user-friendly Windows product we've seen,'' added Deborah Triant, Sitka's president.
All OpenTOPS product development, which commenced in early 1991, is being done by Sitka engineers. OpenTOPS will use Sitka's SoftTalk RPC (Remote Procedure Call mechanism) the SMB-based Windows/DOS code from 10NET and Sitka's next generation, cross-platform server technology to create a highly portable version of SitkaTOPS that is both operating system and transport protocol independent.
During the interim both companies will sell versions of 10NET 5.0, Tiara's recently released DOS and Windows-compatible peer-to-peer network. Tiara will continue to manufacture and distribute the 10NET 5.0 hardware/software bundles and hardware-only solutions. Under different labels, Sitka will sell the software-only version of 10NET 5.0 into their traditional, two-tiered distribution channels.
Founded in 1986, Tiara Computer Systems Inc. is a workgroup connectivity company that manufactures a comprehensive line of hardware and software networking products. Tiara markets its products to resellers through distributors, and develops OEM products for computer manufacturers.
Tiara is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with engineering facilities in Dayton, Ohio. It is a privately held corporation that employs 84 people. Tiara is located at 1091 Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, Calif. 94043, and can be reached at 415/965-1700.
Sitka Corp., an independent subsidiary of Sun Microsystems Inc., manufactures MacTOPS, DosTOPS, SunTOPS and PenTOPS, software and hardware to connect different hardware platforms and operating systems into a single network. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Alameda, Calif., with international sales offices in Bagshot, England. Sitka is located at 950 Marina Village Parkway, Alameda, Calif. 94501, and can be reached at 510/769-9669.
Note to Editors: Sitka is a trademark of Sitka Corp. Tiara and 10NET are registered trademarks of Tiara Computer Systems Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
CONTACT:
Sitka Corp., Alameda
Rebecca Fuller, 415/769-2580
or
Tiara Computer Systems Inc., Mountain View
Linda Longley, 415/965-1700