The only UK submission to the Object Management Group’s Request for Technology for its Object Request Broker has been withdrawn. Cambridge-based Architecture Projects Management Ltd withdrew its ANSAware proposal because it says to win would detract from its Esprit-funded research. Moreover, parts of its technology are already in the submissions from both Hewlett-Packard Co with Sun Microsystems Inc and Digital Equipment Corp. According to some insiders, the HyperDesk Inc technology looks like the best technical submission to the Request Broker Request for Technology, however delegates at an Object Management Group meeting in London earlier this month were insisting that no-one has a complete Object Request Broker. HyperDesk has linked up with DEC in a joint submission, effectively turning the contest a two horse race. Either way Architecture Projects would still get its glory as whatever wins would in some way be ANSA-based, a spokesman confirmed. Sun and Hewlett-Packard have already said that they will press ahead with a commercial implementation of their technology, whoever wins. The fact that both horses are carrying ANSA technology should leave some room for manoeuvre whatever the outcome, as it is likely that some degree of interoperability could be achieved between the two offerings – interoperability which may even extend as far as the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment technology.
