Concert/C 4.0: AVAILABILITY OF A TOOL FOR DISTRIBUTED C PROGRAMMING

Email: concert-c@watson.ibm.com

We announce a new release of Concert/C, a programming tool for
distributed programming in heterogeneous systems.  Concert/C 4.0 is
available for non-commercial use without charge.  It runs on AIX,
IRIX, OS/2, Solaris, and SunOS.  To get the new release of Concert/C
see "OBTAINING CONCERT/C" below for details.  Comprehensive
documentation is also available, including a Tutorial and User Guide,
and a formal specification of the language.

SUMMARY OF CONCERT/C

Concert/C systems are composed of communicating processes, which are
written as sequential C programs.  Concert/C provides primitives to
create and terminate processes, connect them together, and communicate
between them, so that programmers can explicitly express
parallelization and distribution.  Concert/C processes can run on a
heterogeneous set of machine architectures and operating systems, and
communicate over multiple RPC and messaging protocols.

Concert/C simplifies interprocess communications (IPC) programming by
integrating into the language both synchronous RPC and asynchronous
messaging.  Communications takes place over a `binding' in one process
connected to a message queue (called a `port') in another process.  A
binding is a C pointer to the appropriate type of port.  A pointer to
a function provides the capability to make an RPC on the function.
All C data types can be remotely transmitted in IPCs, e.g., scalars,
arrays, strings, and complex data structures containing pointers.
Both RPCs and sends are type checked at compile time.  Concert/C
processes can also interoperate with SunRPC-based applications.

For more technical detail, see the documentation provided in the
distribution.

PLATFORMS

The current release of Concert/C runs on and interoperates among AIX
3.2 on RS/6000, SunOS 4.1.x and Solaris 2.3 on Sparc, OS/2 2.1 on PCs,
and Irix5 on SGI hosts.

Release 4.0 of Concert/C incorporates new functionality, several bug
fixes, improved performance, configuration simplification, and
improved documentation.  Among the features of this release:

OBTAINING CONCERT/C

Concert/C is available for experimental non-commercial use
free-of-charge.  The up-to-date Concert/C documentation is available
by anonymous ftp to:
    software.watson.ibm.com directory: /pub/concert
It is also available by e-mail.

The executable Concert/C system is available in binary form.  In order
for us to better track Concert/C usage, this release is currently only
available on a request/response basis via e-mail.  We plan to
reevaluate this policy after a period of time, and we may eventually
return to using anonymous ftp as the distribution mechanism.  In the
mean time, we require that Concert/C users also do not redistribute it
on an anonymous ftp or similar repository.  Note, however, that
installing Concert/C on multiple systems or on servers within a site
is fine.

To get Concert/C release 4.0, send a note to:
    concert-c@watson.ibm.com and tell us for which systems you would
like copies, from the following choices:
    "power3.2" -- AIX 3.2.5 on RS/6000
    "sun4" -- SunOS 4.1.x on Sparc
    "sun5" -- Solaris 2.3 on Sparc
    "OS2" -- OS/2 2.1
    "irix" -- Irix on SGI
    "documentation" -- the documentation for all of the above.
    "documentation-zip" -- same as above, but in .zip format

By default, the package for each system (except OS/2) is mailed as a
uuencoded/gzip-compressed/tar file of 0.6 to 1 MB depending on the
system; If you do not have gunzip, please ask for a .Z compressed
file.  The OS/2 distribution is mailed as a uuencoded pkzip file of
0.6 MB.  Let us know if your mailer cannot handle a message that size,
and we will split it into several parts.  You should also obtain the
documentation (either via anonymous ftp or e-mail) to properly install
and use the Concert/C system.

On your machine you need to (for unix):
     uudecode, gunzip, and tar -vxf
and follow instructions described in the file INSTALL.

For OS/2:
     uudecode, and pkunzip -d
and follow instructions described in the file INSTALL.OS2.

Internal IBM users may retrieve Concert via anonymous ftp or AFS.
Contact us for specific instructions.

DOCUMENTATION

The documentation, includes installation instructions, a comprehensive
Tutorial and User Guide, a formal Concert/C Specification, and several
technical papers.  The source code of program examples used in the
tutorial are also included.


CONDITIONS AND SUPPORT

Previous releases of Concert have been used with great success at many
sites all over the world.  Still, this is a research software
prototype, and may contain errors.  If you uncover any bugs, please
report them to us.  Concert/C is prototype research software and is
supported as such.  We will respond as best as possible to user
problems.  However, we are a small group intent on continuing our
research, so we may be unable to respond quickly.

TERMS

Concert/C is provided for the user's personal, non-commercial,
experimental use.  The user is granted permission to copy this program
to the extent reasonably required for such use.  Full terms are given
in the file USER_AGREEMENT, which can be downloaded by ftp, and is
included with the binary distributions.

INTERACTING WITH US

If you plan to write Concert/C programs, please let us know.  We will
add you to the Concert/C mailing list and inform you of Concert/C
developments.

   concert-c@watson.ibm.com (if you are using internet mail)
   concrt-c at watson (if you are using VNET or BITNET mail)
   The Concert Project,
   H1-A17, Box 704, IBM Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
   voice: 914 784-7948 FAX: 914 784-7455


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