JavaSoft Ships Java 1.0; Programming environment available free for developers.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 23, 1996--JavaSoft, the newly-formed operating company of Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced that the Java(TM) 1.0 programming environment is now available for download at http://java.sun.com.

"Java's write-once-run-everywhere capability along

with its easy accessibility have propelled the software and Internet communities to embrace it as the de facto standard for writing applications for complex networks," said Alan Baratz, JavaSoft's newly appointed president. "We're delighted to invite developers to download Java 1.0 immediately and start building the next killer application."

"Improving Java to create this strong 1.0 general release has been a great achievement for our team," said Ruth Hennigar, general manager of Java language and applications, JavaSoft. "Since our first alpha release to the web in March we have received a lot of developer feedback and have improved functionality and reliability.

"This release incorporates the components that software developers have told us they need -- the Java Applet Viewer for running and testing applets; the Java Compiler; a prototype debugger and the Java Virtual Machine to run Java-based programs. We've also included class libraries for graphics, audio, animation and networking."

Since its announcement in May 1995, Java has been widely used to create hundreds of "applets" or small applications which can be downloaded across a network and can run locally. Companies as diverse as National Semiconductor, Precision Systems, Inc. and Starwave have already announced significant Java-based programs.

Available for free over the Internet

Developers will continue to have access to Java 1.0, free of charge. It is available for download at http://java.sun.com. In addition, a number of companies have licensed the Java source code to enhance their browsers, create development tools for Java programming, and to port the Java Virtual Machine to various operating systems.

To date, 15 companies, including IBM, SGI, Netscape, Oracle and Toshiba have licensed Java Source, and Microsoft has announced that it intends to license Java.

Java 1.0 is available for the Windows 95 and NT on Intel(R) and Solaris(TM) on SPARC(TM) platforms today. Java 1.0 for Mac OS 7.5 is expected by the end of the first quarter of 1996.