In the face of a cash crisis, the SQL Access Group has had to scale back design and development work on the SQL Access specification, and if new funding is not forthcoming, the field may be left to IBM Corp’s Distributed Relational Database Architecture and Microsoft Corp’s Open DataBase Connectivity to slug it out in the market. The SQL Access Group was formed in 1989 to develop an architecture for communication between dissimilar relational databases. It has been forced to wind down work on its two major development projects, the Persistent SQL Function, which involves an SQL statement being compiled and stored using a high-performance compiler, and its data types strategy for two-phase commit. Products complying with the initial SQL Access specification are still expected to start shipping by the end of the year, including Retix Inc’s Open Systems Interconnection communications stack, its application builder and Microsoft Corp’s SQL Access interface implementation in Windows 3.0. These few, the Group says, are not enough to keep it going. Informix Software Inc and Retix are still pledging support to the Group, and X/Open Co Ltd has a commitment to use SQL Access work in its Portability Guide.
