Digital Equipment Corp has rolled out the range of client-server offerings forecast here last month (CI No 2,338). Among the products and services, users will find a DEC OSF/1 version of IBM Corp’s CICS transaction processing monitor, a worldwide distribution agreement with Forte Software Inc to sell its application development product, and an enhanced object integration technology designed to fill what DEC perceives as a gap in the Object Management Group’s Corba Common Object Request Broker Architecture standard. The firm has bundled together end-user client-server requirements into a selection of frameworks. Production Integration deals with client-server application development, while Data Integration handles the accessibility of multiple databases to varied clients. The Management Integration framework deals with the management of a heterogeneous environment, including all the services and in-house technical skill that it entails. Network Integration involves the structuring of a corporate network to enable fast reconfiguring and the ability to introduce new technologies quickly. Finally, the company’s Enterprise Objects framework is designed to provide tools for object-oriented application design, which is an embryonic industry.
DEC has Forte’s eponynous client-server tool set
DEC has signed up with Oakland, California-based Forte Software Inc to sell the latter’s proprietary language for client-server application development, Forte. The tool, which enables users to re-align the client-server model of an application after they have written it, also supports features such as partition failover, the ability to replicate a service and switch to the secondary source if the primary one becomes unavailable. The product is designed to ascertain the best performance strategy for particular database management systems and adjusts to suit. Forte, which has been integrated into DEC’s ObjectBroker, Pathworks and DECdb Integrator products, will ship from the firm in June worldwide and start at $75,000 for five development clients, one development server, 10 concurrent run-time clients and a run-time server.DEC’s existing application development product, DECadmire, will ship in May with the ability to produce applications for Windows clients. It already produces code for DEC’s ACMS Transaction Processing monitor, Oracle software, DEC Rdb and a variety of third generation languages. It costs from $9,500.
Cohesionworx enhanced to support Distributed Computing Environment Yet another application development environment from DEC, version 2.0 of Cohesionworx has been enhanced to include support for the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment. It can now also develop software in DEC’s Ada language and under Hewlett-Packard’s HP-UX operating system. This software is designed to develop applications for multi-vendor environments, and uses a mixture of DEC’s ObjectBroker software, (the firm’s own version of the Object Management Group’s Corba Common Object Request Broker Architecture), DCE services and the multi-cast message server. Using it, developers can probe around transparently on a network to access development tools from different sources, which DEC says will help standardise on tools. It is shipping now for SunOS and DEC OSF/1, and the HP-UX version will be on the shelves in March. Throughout June, the package will be offered at $1,548 per user.
Setting out to woo the vast army of old Cobollers out there
In its attack on the client-server development market, DEC has turned its eyes towards Cobol developers, introducing the Distributed Application Program Management. The product handles communications between developer’s personal computers and the mainframe, uploading and downloading data and library files between the two. Working within the Micro Focus Plc Cobol Workbench, the system transfers IBM mainframe Cobol code to developer workstations automatically. DEC will customise each version of the DAPM for users and will then implement it in three stages: a $10,000 feasibility study, a pilot on DEC-
loaned kit, and then full implementation. The firm prices a typical system at $180,000.
Reliable Transaction Router for DEC’s OSF/1 Unix
DEC’s RTR product, originally released for OpenVMS VAX systems in 1990, now runs under the firm’s OSF/1 operating system. It is designed to counter network, system, application or site failures by re-routing and recovering data, apparently transparently. Supporting DECnet and TCP/IP networks, and available on a variety of clients, the system also operates across OpenVMS on the company’s whizz-bang AXP machines. On OSF/1, it ships in June and will set you back $300 for clients, $8,000 for servers.
Rdb is finally up under OSF/1
DEC’s Rdb relational database, which first saw daylight way back in 1984, has finally made it to the OSF/1 environment. The program, which like its predecessor handles images and other large objects, ships for a base price of $650 per concurrent user in June.
IBM’s Unix variant of CICS makes it onto Alpha AXP
DEC has signed with IBM Corp to transfer AIX CICS/6000 – not really CICS at all, but a CICS overlay for the Encina transaction processing monitor – to the Alpha AXP architecture. The firm’s move to convert the system for its OSF/1 environment has been aided by the use of the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment, and by Encina, over TCP/IP and Systems Network Architecture systems. Encina itself is being implemented on the OSF/1 system in a joint deal with its developer, Transarc Corp, Pittsburgh, and DEC has said that it will layer its own transaction monitoring system, ACMSxp, over the top of this as an option. The company is also talking about transferring CICS/6000 onto the OpenVMS and Windows NT environments, on the Alpha AXP architecture. It will ship for OSF/1 by year-end.
Two more Alpha AXP workstations join the fray
DEC has unveiled two more workstations based around its Alpha AXP RISC architecture. The DEC 3000 Model 300LX machine comes in at the $5,300 level, while the 300X is an enhanced version for $8,000. The 300LX is designed as a replacement for the 300L, and has high resolution graphics – 1,280 by 1,024 along with a 125MHz Alpha AXP daughter board, 525Mb of storage and 32Mb RAM. Its bigger brother replaces the 150MHz model 300. It now houses a 175MHz chip.
