UK software start-up Prism Technologies Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, will launch a set of flagship OpenBase object-oriented products at London’s ObjectWorld next month. These comprise OpenBase-ADE, or application development environment and OpenBase-SIP, or software integration system, both of which are built around industry standards. SIP provides a run-time environment for objects and applications developed using OpenBase-ADE, and also manages complex heterogeneous environments seamlessly and transparently – it is based on the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment standards. It is essentially the guts of the system inside the run-time part of the system, and comprises a number of layers that sit on top of the operating system – this must be Posix-compliant. OpenBase will initially support Digital Equipment Corp’s Ultrix, but Prism also intends to do versions for either Hewlett-Packard Co’s HP-UX or Sun Microsystems Inc’s Solaris operating system within a month of launch. A Unix System V.4 version should follow in about four to five months, with an AIX version arriving at some unspecified time in the future, but the Gateshead-based firm says it intends to hold off on Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT for a while until it can guage market interest. Prism said it will also develop specific data drivers for customers that want to use other operating systems, however, and is prepared to undertake systems integration work on a case-by-case basis. The second product, OpenBase-ADE, conversely, provides the user with computer-aided software engineering tools so that they can develop and use objects and applications in the SIP environment. These comprise a Class Definition Language and graphical tools to link objects together. The Class Definition Language is essentially an extension of the Object Management Group’s Common Object Request Broker Architecture Interface Definition Language, and enables users to build configurable objects. It generates C++ code, which is then recompiled to create OpenBase classes.
Emerging ObjectSQL standard
The developer subsequently uses an Environment Description Language, to configure the software applications and tell them in what type of environment they will be used. OpenBase uses OSF/Motif as a front end and supports Object Design Inc’s ObjectStore database. Prism is also talking to Hewlett-Packard about using its OpenOBD relational database management system in the near future, but says it would consider using any object database adhering to the emerging ObjectSQL standard. Although no pricing has been decided yet, customers will have the option to buy either the development environment, or the run-time environment, or both. Although OpenBase has been in development for the past three years, Prism only started trading in May 1992. The founders were formerly senior managers at Digital Equipment UK Ltd systems integration house Integrated Automation Systems Ltd, which specialises in implementing automation systems in the process and discrete manufacturing industries hence Prism’s decision to do a version of the product for the DEC Ultrix operating system first. Realising that a systems house was not the right environment to realise the full potential of the development, the team decided to effect a management buyout, which was completed by May last year. This background means that Prism will initially focus its research and development as well as sales and marketing efforts on the manufacturing and oil industry, although it feels OpenBase has appeal across a wide range of market sectors, particularly finance. It is currently working with both universities and end users to develop applications, intends to start writing its own applications in-house, and is currently working out value-added reseller agreements with various hardware vendors and systems houses. DEC and IBM Corp fall into the first category, while Sema Group Plc and Logica Plc fall into the latter – Logica, along with other firms such as ICI Plc and i2it Ltd, actually collaborated on the development of Op
enBase from the early days.
