The second major release of the veteran UltraCalc spreadsheet is released this week by Olympus Software Inc of Salt Lake City. UltraCalc was first launched onto the market in 1983, and has ince won sales as the standard spreadsheet for a number of large US Federal Government orders. UltraCalc II includes integrated colour graphics, database support, and has the ability to allow users to load and edit multiple spreadsheets concurrently. Data in one spreadsheet window is affected by alterations in other windows and is automatically and dynamically updated via three-dimensional linking. The linking, transferring and consolidation of spreadsheets between sites or hardware platforms can be achieved with no conversions required. Olympus claims that virtually all Unix computers and workstations can be supported, including Motorola 88000-based systems, for which the product conforms to the 88open Consortium’s binary compatible standard. Cost in the US is $700. Meanwhile, rival Access Technology is previewing a real-time spreadsheet product that will enable users to take real time data from various sources and perform quick analysis within 20/20. According to Access, the financial services market is the main target for the system, which will be released (initially in a VMS version) next month, followed by the Unix version. Pre-release versions are already on test at several large banks, and Access has also added NCR’s Tower and Sun Microsystems’ Sparcstation to its list of hardware running the latest version of 20/20, 2.3. Natick, Massachusetts Access claims nearly 500,000 users at 30,000 licensed sites.
