Computer Associates International Inc yesterday made its statement of architectural direction on how it intends to harmonise the disparate array of competing software products for the IBM and DEC markets that it has acquired over the past few years. The company’s CA90s consists of five guiding principles, but is seen as expansive on general direction but short on detail. It will embrace IBM’s Systems Application Architecture and DEC’s Network Application Services, and include VMS, MS-DOS, OS/2, OS/400 and Unix as well as MVS and VM. The idea is that users should be able to run the key Computer Associates products on any of the supported systems or on a mix of systems. The plan is likely to take a number of years to unfold, and it is based on Computer Associates’ Application Construction Environment, an application development scheme launched in February 1989. The first product, CA-DB:Caselink, will provide links between several of its databases and computer-aided software engineering tools from IBM’s AD/Cycle partners Index Technology Inc and Knowledgeware Inc. Computer Associates says the new architecture consists of layers of technology built on top of support for a range of systems. It will include layers of distributed services for databases and servers; integration services for security products, data dictionary, and application services; software for information management, systems management, and applications; and user interfaces for graphics and reporting. New products will also be developed and acquired to extend it.
