AIX 5L Certified for COE
First OS compliant with the DoD's COE version 4.
IBM Corp. announced that its AIX 5L Unix operating system has been certified to run the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Common Operating Environment (COE).
COE, a graphical user interface that provides a common look and feel across heterogeneous platforms, is a DoD requirement for support of Command and Control applications.
AIX 5L is the first operating system certified as compliant with COE version 4.
AIX 5L’s COE certification was achieved preparatory to the awarding of a contract in support of the DoD’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program, for which The Boeing Co. will serve as general contractor.
Boeing tapped IBM to provide p690 systems running AIX in support of the GMD program. According to IBM, 66 of its eServer p690 AIX systems will be used in support of the DoD’s Missile Defense program, while 20 p690 systems will be deployed to support a variety of tests and other simulations. The DoD will use the remainder of the AIX systems for Battle Management Command and Control, IBM confirms.
In order to meet the requirements for COE certification, IBM had to port 875,000 lines of DoD code and generate approximately 1,500 pages of supporting documentation. After that, the DoD subjected COE running on AIX to 29 validation tests to ensure compliance.
"The compliance certification demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the Government sector and opens up a great market opportunity in the Department of Defense," asserted Anne Altman, IBM Managing Director for US Federal, in a prepared release.
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Stephen Swoyer is a Nashville, TN-based freelance journalist who writes about technology.