The Wall Street Journal, October 31, 1995, p. B6. IBM Announces New Software Code That Is Universal By Laurie Hays International Business Machines Corp., in its effort to reduce the importance of computer-operating systems, announced a new kind of universal-software code called Microkernal that enables software to work on incompatible hardware. For software developers and businesses that want to develop one set of codes to run applications on many different machines, Microkernal offers an opportunity for the long-touted open computing. A big challenge remains, however: to market the technology and make a business case for software developers to write for Microkernal in a world that is dominated by Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. "It's exciting technology, but it will be hard for them to market," says Dan Kuznetsky, an analyst with International Data Corp., a Framingham, Mass., market-research firm. "It's also got a long way to go from what they've announced to the future." Mr. Kuznetsky likens the technology to the development of a great automobile transmission that has yet to be turned into a truck or a car. The key to Microkernal is a single source code base that communicates between the hardware and the operating system. One long-term possibility, for example, would be to make the Apple Computer Inc.'s Maclntosh operating system work on an Intel PC, impossible today because the two have different design architectures that don't talk to each other. IBM's delayed OS/2 operating system for the PowerPC chip, which is expected to be shipped by the end of the year, will be the first IBM offering for the Microkernal allowing developers to move applications to the chip with only small changes. IBM so far has garnered a number of licensing agreements for Microkernal, including Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, Mass., and LG Electronics, formerly the Korean electronics concern Goldstar, as well as a number of universities. -----