Groupe Bull and Syseca SA, Thomson-CSF SA’s information technology subsidiary, have announced a consolidation of their communal software engineering technology development efforts with the launch of a joint venture company called Transtar. The new company was built on the foundations of what was formerly Societe Francaise de Genie Logiciel, which comprised Bull, Syseca, Cap Gemini Sogeti SA, Sema Group Plc, Steria SA and Cisi SA. During the course of the first quarter, Bull and Syseca quietly bought out the holdings of four other shareholders and have now regrouped the software engineering tool development activity of their previous joint organisation, Emeraude, and that of Bull itself. Held 65% by Bull and 35% by Syseca, Transtar will market Bull’s Integrated System Development product set, which is, in turn, based on Emeraude’s implementation of the Portable Common Tools Environment repository. The repository contains, as its kernel, the Neutral Information Model from UK’s Software One Ltd. Integrated System Developement SD is available immediately on the Bull DPX/20 and and IBM Corp RS/6000 under AIX 3.2.5. Its components will soon be available on Sun 4, SunOs 4.1 and Solaris 2. The Emeraude PCTE is available as a stand-alone product on the above-mentioned machines and on the HP 9000 Series 700 under HP-UX 9.0 and Digital Equipment Corp Alpha under OSF 1.3. Associated options are Emeraude PC, which provides client access from Windows 3.1 and Emeraude TCI, which integrates Emeraude PCTE with ToolTalk on Solaris workstations. Transtar will market the products worldwide, mostly through value-added reseller partnerships; a number of Emeraude PCTE distributors are in place in Europe, North America and Japan. Transtar is also in ‘very active’ discussions with IBSI, the software engineering subsidiary of France Telecom, about collaborations because of its complementary products.
