Oracle wants partners for NC standards

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison would like to sign on Sun Microsystems and possibly IBM as partners in support of a common set of standards for network appliances such as Oracle's own Network Computer.

The standards would allow manufacturers to build devices based on a common set of specifications and application programming interfaces (APIs). "Sun is building an NC. We're building an NC. The great thing is we're going to agree on a specification," Ellison told the Associated Press.

But published reports that Sun and IBM have already endorsed the plan may be premature. Sun has denied that it has actually signed a deal with Oracle to support the standards.

"We've not agreed to anything," said a spokesman for Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, the division of Sun that has built and is testing 300 Sun-designed prototypes of a device comparable to Oracle's Network Computer. Sun's new PC will run Sun's Java programming language.

IBM is working on a similar network appliance called the Interactive PC. The company declined to comment on reports that it has also signed on to Oracle's standards bandwagon.