POSIX® Certification Program FAQs

Here is some information about the operation and benefit of the program. Some technical information about POSIX can be found by clicking here (http://www.opengroup.org/austin/papers/posix_faq.html)

1. Q: What is this POSIX(R) Certification Program?

The POSIX Certification program is a voluntary program jointly administered by the IEEE and The Open Group, open to any product meeting the conformance requirements.

POSIX(R) Certification is a formal process built around the POSIX(R) Certification Policy document, the POSIX Certification Agreement and for suppliers licensing the POSIX trademark, the POSIX Trademark License Agreement.

2. Q: Why is this happening?

This POSIX(R) Certification program provides formal recognition of a product's conformance to the latest revisions of the IEEE POSIX standards:

Suppliers will be able to make and substantiate clear claims of conformance to a POSIX standard

Buyers will be able to specify and successfully procure conforming products

It is expected that procurement agencies requiring POSIX conformance will utilize this certification program.

3. Q: Why is this a joint venture between The IEEE and The Open Group?

This cooperation builds on the work done by the Austin Group for joint development of IEEE Std 1003.1(TM)-2001, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) sponsored by the Portable Applications Standards Committee (PASC) of the IEEE Computer Society, The Open Group, and ISO/JTC1/SC22 WG15.

The Open Group and the IEEE-SA are well-suited organizations to join in the development of a POSIX Certification Program because designing, building and operating certification programs based on consensus standards is a core competency. The Open Group builds and operates market-attractive programs and stand alone as the only consortium to operate commercially viable certification programs as a fundamental service. With over 15 years of experience, The Open Group has developed and operated IT certification programs in several strategic areas, including UNIX(R) , CORBA(R) , LDAP, WAP(R) and LSB(R) . IEEE-SA is one of the world's leading standards development organizations and has experience as a certification authority and registration authority.

4. Q: What is the scope of certification?

Certification is available for products implementing the 2003 Edition of IEEE Std 1003.1, and those implementing the POSIX PSE54 Realtime Profile in IEEE Std 1003.13-2003.

5. Q: What are the advantages of Certification?

POSIX(R) certification is expected to be widely accepted by government and other major procurers of IT @ T devices. To compete with the other suppliers whose products are certified you may wish to consult your intended customers to ascertain their needs. Given the low cost of certification after you have built a product that meets the specifications and passes the tests, we believe the return on investment is substantial.

6. Q: How does it compare to the other certification programs?

The POSIX certification program complements other certification programs such as LSB certification, COE Platform certification and the UNIX certification program, all of which draw on conformance to the POSIX standards at their core.

7. Q: How will the program operate?

The certification program is based on a supplier's claim of conformance, with testing providing an indicator of compliance. Suppliers typically will use test suites to establish confidence that their product conforms, and to achieve certification, the supplier must also provide a warranty of conformance, indicating that their product is conformant.

8. Q: Why a supplier warranty?

This warranty ensures that: (a) Products conform to an industry standard specification (b) Products remain conformant throughout the life of the product and (c) If there is a non-conformance, the product will be fixed in a timely manner.

9. Q: How do suppliers make a warranty?

The warranty can either be made as part of the Certification Agreement which suppliers must agree to when they submit a product for certification , or by licensing the POSIX trademark for use in connection with certified products.

10. Q: What are the differences between a warranty as part of the
Certification Agreement versus licensing the POSIX trademark?

For products where the supplier does not license the POSIX trademark, the supplier will only be able to make the following statement : "the Product is is certified to the (Insert Product Standard Name) and is listed on the certification register at (insert URL)".

For products where the supplier has additionally licensed the POSIX trademark, the supplier will be able to use the POSIX trademark in connection with the certified product according to the terms of the POSIX trademark license agreement. The register of certified products will also denote that the supplier has licensed the trademark.

11. Q: Are there test suites for use with the program?

Yes, The Open Group is providing test suites for the program. For testing IEEE Std 1003.1 these include a test suite for the system interfaces (VSX-PCTS2003) and a test suite for the shell and utilities (VSC-PCTS2003). Similarly for IEEE Std 1003.13 PSE54 two test suites are available, VSPSE54-2003 for the system interfaces, and VSC-PCTS2003 for the shell and utilities.

12. Q: Is there be a license fee for the test suites?

For IEEE Std 1003.1 the approved certification test suites are made freely available to suppliers entering the program. This is made possible since The Open Group is able to utilize components of existing test suites it has developed for other certification programs. The test suite for IEEE Std 1003.13 PSE54 is available for commercial license from The Open Group.