MapInfo Corp, the Troy, New York-based desk-top mapping software company, has launched version 3.0 of its eponymous software package, with more tools and features. The company believes that over 80% of corporate data contains a geographical component, and its product, first launched in 1987, is a database tool that enables the user to layer disparate data on top of a detailed map and then give visualisation and geographic analysis of this data. The company supplies the user with a basic digitised map of the world and the UK, plus UK towns and regions, and A and B roads within the M25 orbital motorway around London, and the tool package, which operates on Windows, Macintosh, Sun Microsystems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and MS-DOS computers. More detailed maps and maps with specialised information are available from the company and its application partners. The user can then pour in further data from public, proprietary or corporate sources, stored in other software tools, such as dBase, 1-2-3, or Excel, or in plain ASCII, and extrapolate information on a geographic basis. The company’s enhanced SQL Datalink provides client-server remote data access to Oracle and Sybase databases. Version 3.0 offers raster image support, incorporating satellite images and upgrading vector maps, while new tools enable the user to read and present data in different ways. The basic MapInfo for Windows 3.0, shipping this summer and costing ?1,100, uses a VGA monitor and requires at least an 80386 processor and a minimum of 4Mb RAM.
