Silicon Graphics Inc has licensed Visigenic Software Inc’s ORB Object Request Broker technology for integration into its Unix operating system, Irix (CI No 3,228). A basic runtime version of both VisiBroker for C++ and VisiBroker for Java will be distributed with all Silicon Graphics Origin200 and Origin2000 servers, and the O2, Octane, and Onyx2 workstations. Visigenic’s existing devotees include Netscape Communications Corp, Forte Software Inc, Oracle Corp, Borland Corp and Novell Corp. According to Silicon Graphics, the integration of Visigenic’s Corba-compliant ORB technology will enable developers to write applications for these machines that communicate via IIOP with C++, and via Java objects on other systems. End-users will automatically be granted access to the technology as part of their Irix license. Since its inception in 1994, Visigenic, founded by Roger Sippl, was a pure ODBC Open Data Base Connectivity player – until, that is, its acquisition of California-based ORB specialist PostModern Computing Inc in April last year (CI No 2,903). This added PostModern’s object request broker expertise to its own ODBC and Java Database Connectivity standards products. The most valuable part of the acquisition was a Java-enabled ORB called Black Widow. It was this product that was renamed VisiBroker soon after. In June that year Netscape, Platinum Technology Inc and Cisco Systems Inc paid $8m between them for a total stake of less than 10% in then still-private Visigenic. But despite the number of vendors that have bought into the company’s technology, analysts don’t expect the company to show a profit until its third fiscal quarter in December 1998. The company reported a fourth quarter (April) loss of $2.1m, up from $0.7m last time.
