Novell Announces Shipment of NEST 1.0 SDK

Novell and Partners Add Network Functionality to Copiers, Building Controls, Settops, and Other Non-Traditional Computing Devices

The NEST SDK is a key step in delivering the power of the network to more users and contributing to Novell's goal of building a billion node network by the year 2000. By focusing on providing customized solutions for these environments, Novell and its partners are enabling easy access and control of existing and new types of devices, not just computers, to the network. Early NEST adopters include Ricoh, Fujitsu, Lexmark, Digital Products, QMS, Canon, Andover Controls, Xerox, IC Card, Securicor Telecoms, and Castelle. "Novell and its partners have an opportunity to bring pervasive computing to new environments," said Bob F. Frankenberg, Novell president and chief executive officer. "Novell has developed networks for the office environment for the past 10 years while our partners have become leaders in their areas of expertise. We look forward to working with these combined strengths to create a pervasive computing infrastructure."

NEST Simplifies Development
By providing modular source code, extensive documentation, training, test tools and support, the NEST 1.0 SDK minimizes the cost, complexity and overall development effort of connecting devices to a NetWare network. NEST devices can plug directly into Novell's large installed base and take advantage of NetWare services, security, and management facilities. NEST is hardware, processor and operating system independent; it is open and extensible by both Novell and its partners, and it is small, portable and modular so it can scale from small devices to large scale systems. Developers can leverage the latest NetWare technology and take immediate advantage of new features such as enhanced security, directory services and the latest protocol enhancements. The NEST SDK decreases development time from engineer years to engineer months. "NEST eliminates the necessity to reverse engineer code," said Bill Piesel, chief technology officer for Digital Products, Inc. "This factor alone is a major selling point for NEST."

NEST is designed to meet the stringent requirements of embedded system developers for portability, modularity, reliability and openness. Developers can port NEST software from one platform to another to maximize their market coverage with minimum development effort. NEST is written in C to be CPU independent. It is also operating system independent, so developers have flexibility in choosing their operating system, whether it be their own or one from a third party. QMS opted to use their own proprietary operating system. "Novell worked closely with us to resolve portability issues," said Theodore Kearley, network product manager of QMS. "We received bug fixes promptly and are very pleased with the level of developer support coming from Novell."

NEST Gives Access to NetWare Directory Services (NDS)
A significant attribute of NEST is access to NetWare Directory Services (NDS), Novell's cornerstone of pervasive computing. To reach Novell's goal of building a billion user network by the year 2000, there must be a fault tolerant, infinitely scalable registration, management, and attribute database that defines the structure and assures the security of the network. That is NDS. "One of the most important aspects of NEST is the ability to integrate more closely with NetWare 4.x services such as NDS," said Paul Curlander, executive vice president, Lexmark International. "We believe this close integration will make it even easier to offer our users the most advanced printer management available for the NetWare environment." Xerox is an early adopter of the NEST SDK and is using Novell technology to build NetWare connectivity into printers. "NEST has helped make our development efforts more efficient, especially when it comes to supporting NDS," said Bruce Gitlin, manager busines! s development for the Office Document Systems Division of Xerox. "As we plan new products to serve the emerging multifunction market, we believe NEST will have an important impact on the functionality we will be able to provide our customers."

NEST is Small and Modular, Includes Test Tools
Memory size and component overhead are critical factors in embedded systems - much more so than in PCs. The NEST architecture employs a building block approach, so developers need only include those functions and software modules required by their embedded systems. This ensures the smallest possible resource requirements for the tasks at hand. The NEST SDK provides software tools for testing SPX and IPX protocols as well as printer applications. These test tools are the same ones used by Novell Labs to certify products in the YES program. "The test suite really puts you in control," said Kearley. "Once your implementation has passed the tests in house, there should be no surprises when you submit for certification."

Path to the Future
NEST allow developers to add value to their embedded systems in the form of additional services and capabilities so they can react quickly to changing market requirements. "QMS remains committed to staying on the forefront of NetWare printing services and NEST fits in perfectly with this strategy," said Richard Bowles, QMS executive director of product marketing. "It allows QMS to continue to offer state-of-the-art NetWare functionality with a minimum of core code development. Designing future products with NEST will give QMS and its customers a clear migration path to easily add any new features which may become available in future releases of NetWare."

NEST extends the benefits of networking to devices in the control environment. "More and more we find that our customers demand that our equipment interoperate using networks that already exist in their facilities," said Kevin Sweeney, director of Andover Controls Corporation. "Novell is the leading player in the networking industry, so it only makes sense to incorporate their technology into our products. The NEST program allows us to join the Novell bandwagon quickly and efficiently so that we can spend more of our time on our area of expertise - building controls."

The technology issues that Novell has mastered during the past 10 years in developing networks for the office environment - security, reliability, interoperability, management, scalability, performance, ease of use, and directory services - are the same key issues that are facing networks in these extended environments. "With Novell's protocols added to our existing AppleTalk and TCP/IP protocols, our printers will be able to communicate with Macintoshes, PCs, Windows, OS/2 and UNIX workstations," said Eli Fuchs, vice president of engineering at GCC Technologies.

"Novell has taken the lead in defining computing's next generation," said Mike Schneider, president of Integrated Business Information Systems, Ltd. "With NEST in the home, Novell will provide the software foundation for home computing and electronic commerce, the fastest growing markets through the end of this decade. Novell is positioning itself to become the leading infrastructure vendor for the next generation."

Pricing and Availability
The NEST 1.0 SDK includes source code, documentation, training, test tools and support, and is available immediately. It also includes five licenses for internal development and twenty five licenses for beta testing. Additional licenses may be obtained by signing a distribution license agreement. Suggested Retail Price for the NEST 1.0 SDK is $50,000.00 (US). For more information, contact your Novell OEM Sales Representative or call 800/895-NEST; or 512/346-3794 outside the U.S.

The business of Novell is connecting people with other people and the information they need, enabling them to act on it anytime, anyplace. Novell is the world's leading network software provider. The company's products provide the distributed infrastructure, network services, advanced network access and network applications required to make networked information and pervasive computing an integral part of everyone's daily life.

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Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks and Novell Embedded Systems Technology, NEST, NetWare Directory Services and NDS are trademarks of Novell, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective organizations.