Tabriz AgentWare and AgentTools
Frequently Asked Questions

1) What did General Magic's Active Internet Products Division announce in June?

On June 25, 1996, General Magic announced Tabriz AgentWare and Tabriz Agent Tools, software for the World Wide Web powered by General Magic's Telescript technology. Telescript, a server-based communications language launched commercially in 1993, introduced the concept of software "agents." These are software components that can be instructed to perform tasks and deliver results to users, as discussed further below.

2) Who is Tabriz for?

Any developer of applications for companies that use the Internet or intranets to deliver information, products and services, internally or externally. Tabriz transforms passive networks and applications into active, secure processes for competitive advantage. This gives users faster access to timely, accurate information and allows them to do their jobs more productively.

3) What is Tabriz AgentWare?

AgentWare is general-purpose software that enables the creation and interaction of "processes" that can occur and interact with one another, even while users requesting the processes aren't actively connected to a network. Processes can be requests for information, authorization and verification and other tasks that are part of a larger goal.

The technologies used to build AgentWare result in processes that are active, secure and persistent across the Internet, the World Wide Web and corporate intranets-processes that can be used to build a new, superior class of applications.

4)How does this work?

Tabriz agents operate by eliminating boundaries between:

• information stored in systems that are on the same network(s) but are incompatible;
• information distributed across multiple computers or servers; and
• historical information and current circumstances requiring immediate decisions or actions.

5) How are boundaries removed?

Application developers write software that includes "agents"-software components that can interact with multiple other agents, computers, operating systems and applications. These agents obtain and make accessible the information and resources users need to solve problems and perform tasks quickly and efficiently -- no matter where the data is located. Agents cross system and network boundaries so users view information as if everything were on their own computers or servers, in a consistent form ready for manipulation.

6) How does the AgentWare solution differ from previous communication- or agent-based solutions?

Current technologies for enhancing applications include messaging (e-mail) and topic-specific search agents. E-mail provides only a simple communication agent with limited abilities. "Topic-driven" agent software like that from several other vendors, while sometimes useful, can only perform searches based on rigidly pre-defined topics.

In contrast, AgentWare lets developers build applications enhanced with flexibly defined, all-purpose agents that can perform processes and interact, even while users are offline. AgentWare empowers corporate and commercial developers to deploy new applications with new features, rapidly and economically.

7) What are the security features of Tabriz?

General Magic understands that security is a primary concern among those doing business over networks, including and especially the World Wide Web. Tabriz security features include:

• standards-based security that provides a safe environment in which Tabriz applications may execute;
• two-way authentication, which assures information is being shared among authorized users and applications only;
• access control, which lets Web site and intranet managers determine who can and can't access Tabriz applications; and
• controlled resource allocation; to help make sure everyone gets timely access to what they need to do their jobs while Web site and intranet managers can monitor and reallocate resource consumption.

8) Does Tabriz provide a visual development environment?

Yes. Agent Tools, the Tabriz development environment, is an integrated, graphical set of tools for creating, debugging and maintaining Tabriz applications. Tabriz Agent Tools is available now as a UNIX System application; a beta release of a version for Windows NT is expected to ship this Autumn. Tabriz Agent Tools provides a source-code editor, a class browser, a source-level debugger and features for managing the components used to build Tabriz applications.

9) How does AgentWare compare with Sun's Java and Microsoft's ActiveX?

Architecturally, AgentWare and Agent Tools are able to support and interact with either or both of these powerful, increasingly popular technologies. The current implementations include support for Java. Combined, Tabriz and Java technologies can be used to create and deploy new network applications that fit seamlessly within the browser-server computing models being promoted by Microsoft, Netscape and their industry partners.

10)Is Tabriz shipping today?

Yes. General Magic shipped Tabriz 1.0 on July 15, 1996.

11) On which platforms will Tabriz run?

Tabriz runs on the following platforms:

• Hewlett-Packard 700/800 Series hardware running HP-UX 9.04 or 9.05 with C 9.61 and C++ 3.50
• Sun SPARCstation running Solaris 2.5 with C 2.0.1 and C++ 2.0.1
• Silicon Graphics Indigo hardware running IRIX 5.3 with C 3.1.8 and C++ 3.2.1

12) What are the system requirements for Tabriz?

We recommend a minimum of 32MB of RAM for the Tabriz Agent Tools and 64 MB for operating Tabriz AgentWare, alone or with Tabriz Agent Tools. We recommend 200MB disk space for a full installation of the Tabriz Agent Tools including documentation, samples and demos, and 105MB for a minimum Tabriz AgentWare installation.

In addition, Tabriz software requires the following:

• Perl version 5.0
• a Text editor (for Tabriz Agent Tools only)
• an X terminal that supports color (or a monochrome terminal that supports 256 shades of gray)
• any web browser which supports tables (for Tabriz AgentWare only)

13) What clients will Tabriz and Tabriz applications support?

Tabriz and Tabriz applications can be accessed by anyone using a computer equipped with a Web or intranet browser. Collectively, browsers represent the highest-volume client software on the market today, which translates into large potential markets for Tabriz-enabled applications.

14) Will General Magic support Windows NT or other platforms?

General Magic will support Windows NT, with support for ODBC. Beta release of Tabriz for Windows NT is anticipated for Autumn 1996. For information on other platforms, please contact General Magic directly.

15) How much are Tabriz products? How do I get them or more information about them?

Tabriz Agent Tools are currently available at no charge (except shipping and handling fees). General Magic is providing free Tabriz Agent Tools to encourage developers to build, test and deploy non-commercial applications with them, and to experience their unique advantages over other development tools.

Tabriz AgentWare is available for $4,995 per "engine." Multiple engines can run on single Web or intranet servers. Each AgentWare license allows Web and intranet site managers to deploy distributed Tabriz applications commercially.

Under General Magic's "Jump Start" Promotion Program, individual copies of AgentWare available at no charge (except shipping and handling), one per customer, until October 15, 1996. Those eligible to participate in the Jump Start program include all third-party developers using tools or environments from the following vendors. Contact General Magic for information on what's required to identify yourself as a qualifying developer.

• Borland
• HP
• IBM
• Informix
• JavaSoft
• Lotus
• Microsoft
• Netscape
• Oracle
• SGI
• Sun
• Sybase
• Verity

To order Tabriz AgentWare or Tabriz Agent Tools:

Visit General Magic's World Wide Web site at http://www.genmagic.com;

or

Call 1-888-CONJURE (or 888/266-5873) toll-free in the United States. From area where you can not dial a toll free (US) number you can dial (408) 774-4298

(If you're ordering free Tabriz software, please have a credit card handy to cover shipping and handling charges.)

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