Now that the word repository is becoming fashionable again, Unisys Corp has made its Universal Repository, which uses the Versant Object Technology Corp object database as its underlying engine, available in the general marketplace, initially on Sun Microsystems Inc hardware. The Universal Repository has been in beta test at a dozen or so internal Unisys sites for some time, and one customer, the UK’s National & Provincial Building Society, which is currently under offer from Abbey National Plc, is implementing the repository as part of its Organisational Design Facility. Unisys claims to have the first object-oriented repository available. It includes built-in workgroup capabilities, client-server support, and application programming interfaces that support around 20 Unisys and third party software engineering tools via British company Software One Ltd’s Exchange bridge. An NT implementation should be ready by July, with HP-UX and AIX versions due by year-end. The repository is up on the Opus parallel system initially. What is not clear is how the repository will fit alongside the TopSystems development environment of Unisys’s recently-created USoft unit.
