After a long silence, Oracle Corp’s planned on-line service moved right back into the spotlight in Paris this week when Larry Ellison affirmed that an announcement on the service – for which Oracle will handle infrastructure but not content – is imminent. The on-line service was first mentioned when Oracle began talking about its ideas for Network Computers, and it is to be designed to integrate intimately with the computers, and with a new server operating system that Oracle has designed, which will be far less complex to install and use than anything Microsoft has dreamed up. According to the International Herald Tribune, the operating system has been written for servers using iAPX-86 processors, and more or less had to be because price-performance on Pentium and Pentium Pro servers is so much better than for any alternative. The new servers will be able to deliver video over standard telephone lines via 28.8Kbps modems, Ellison claimed; Oracle Network Computers will come with software modems initially running at 33.6Kbps and upgradable as technology advances. And, in a switch, Oracle has now decided that its Network Computers will accept programs on PC Cards rather than running only software that has been retrieved from the network server. On the on-line service, Ellison said that Oracle would seek a series of affiliates round the world to franchise the service, with Oracle setting the standards so that people everywhere got the same experience. He favors telephone companies over cable television companies as these service provider affiliates on the grounds that the former have very much stronger balance sheets.
