
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991                   TAG: 9102260420
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Short

SUN, H-P JOIN IN SOFTWARE PROJECT

Sun Microsystems Inc. and the Hewlett-Packard Co., the two leading vendors of computer work stations, Monday announced a joint effort to develop advanced software that will allow their computers, as well as machines made by other companies, to work together.

The goal is to create software that will allow computer users throughout an organization to share information over a network, even if they use computers made by different companies or software programs that were not designed to work together.

Sun, based in Mountain View, Calif., and Hewlett, based in nearby Palo Alto, said they would license the results to other companies in an attempt to create a standard.

The agreement is the latest in a swirl of shifting alliances in the computer industry. The industry is moving from a situation in which each computer vendor had its own proprietary system to one based on standards, and companies are linking to promote standards that give them an advantage.

-The New York Times

by CNB