BANGALORE, INDIA (02/14/2000) - In an effort to take advantage of new multiprocessor-based hardware, Novell Inc.'s Indian software development is developing a multithreaded TCP/IP stack, which is to be integrated into the next release of NetWare, according to company officials.
The multithreaded TCP/IP stack is a key piece of Novell's strategy to offer multithreading on NetWare and applications such as BorderManager and GroupWise.
On another front, Personal NDS, also developed by Novell's unit in the South Indian city of Bangalore, is now undergoing beta testing. A directory-based application on the client, Personal NDS will enable the user to cache on to the client the directory from the server and work offline.
Unlike most software development subsidiaries in India, which primarily do piecemeal coding work, Novell Software Development (I) Pvt. Ltd. assumes full product responsibility for a number of Novell products. These responsibilities include including customer interaction, product management, product revision management, system test capabilities, and documentation.
Novell's Indian unit is not only responsible for getting the company up to speed with the competition in terms of multithreaded TCP/IP stacks, but was an integral part of the development of NetWare 5.1, according to Vikram G. Shah, managing director of Novell Software Development (I) Pvt. Ltd.
Components of Novell NetWare 5.1 developed by the unit include the FTP server and the multimedia server. The multimedia server was an initiative of the Indian subsidiary that eventually was included in the NetWare 5.1 specifications.
"The multimedia server was conceptualized entirely here, and you could say even pushed into NetWare 5.1 as a functionality," Shah said. This server uses open standards like RTSP -- RTP (Real-Time Protocol) for streaming audio and video over the Internet and intranets. It currently supports the MP3 music format, the WAV digital audio format and the RM format for streaming media. Novell India also is working on support for other formats, with a focus on music and videoconferencing over IP.
Novell's Indian software development subsidiary is currently responsible for NDS shipment on various platforms other than Windows NT and NetWare. Starting with Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris operating system, the company is now doing NDS on Tru64 Unix (formerly Digital Unix) and Linux, and may also deliver NDS on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP-UX and IBM Corp.'s AIX. The subsidiary has 15 patents, with another four in the pipeline.
Novell, in Provo, Utah, can be reached at +1-801-222-6000, or at http://www.novell.com.