Burlington, Massachusetts-based object component house I-Kinetics Inc will beta test its Corba-Object Linking & Embedding Unix database access mechanism in a two-month beta release by the end of the month. The Database Component supports Oracle and Sybase access from Corba and Object Linking & Embedding clients using Iona Technologies Ltd’s Orbix object request broker. Informix and CA-Ingres versions will follow. It has SunSoft Inc’s NEO, formerly Project Distributed Objects Everywhere and Digital Equipment Corp ObjectBroker request broker versions in the pipeline. The component is said to deliver Unix databases as object Linking & Embedding Automation Servers on Windows clients or C++ objects on Unix. Orbix eliminates the need for database-spe-ific middleware and drivers. I-Kinetics said Database Component and the other modules it plans will enable users to buy end-to-end solutions rather than building them from scratch. A Database Component back-end sits on the Unix server where the relational database is hosted and integrates with Orbix. It costs from $2,000. The Unix-Windows front-end is $300. I-Kenetics will demonstrate this at DB/Expo 95 in New York. Other components due include the delayed ObjectPump, now due in the first quarter. It puts an object wrapper around non-distributed code including the delayed ObjectPump and Cobol application so that it can be accessed by Database and other components. Development of ObjectPump is being funded by a US government grant to the ComponentWare Consortium of which I-Kinetics is a founder member. As the consortium didn’t get going until last June, some months later than originally planned, ObjectPump was pushed back until the government money began to flow. The consortium’s goal is to package data and applications as standard, re-usable software components using Corba, Object Linking & Embedding and its member’s technology. Siemens AG is a recent addition to the consortium’s ranks. I-Kinetics is also planning a virtual application warehouse that can store objects as business components, which can then be shared as Object Linking & Embedding-enabled controller extensions.
