French company Copernique SA has formed a UK subsidiary named Copernique Ltd in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, to establish a marketing base for Northern Europe; it will open for business later this month. The company’s main products are the Server series, a range of back-end database management processors, and Diram, a disk management processor. The Server is used centrally on standard networks such as Ethernet, with mini and personal computers and desktop workstations which access the information using SQL or Codasyl access methods. The aim is to eliminate the need for locally held databases, with the server storing, updating and delivering data as required. The server uses a Motorola 68000 control processor and uses bit slice processors and firmware to control and load up software on a number of 68020 processors with 2Mb of memory each which drive different functions to manage database access. The number of these within the server depend on various factors including size of database. The server is not designed to use customer software, but it is able to run special customised data processing functions when programmed under Unix. There are software packages to support the server from MS-DOS and OS/2 personal computers, Unix machines and DEC VAXes. The Diram disk cache sits between the CPU and disk drive to increase the performance of the disk drive. It can be used on a range of systems including the Bull HN and Gould systems such as the Bull DPS 6 minicomputers and Encore Computer Corp Concept/32 machines. Diram is marketed in the UK through Bull HN Information Systems, whose French controlling parent has a 5% shareholding in Copernique. Other suppliers are leading software houses and computer companies. In the UK Copernique will concentrate on supplementing this, concentrating on the market for its Server products, which are not marketed by Bull. Traditionally the company has invested heavily in research and development, spending a daunting 45% of annual turnover in this field and contracting other companies to handle marketing and maintenance. Now it is preparing for 1992 and the Single European Market by moving its marketing division for the Northern European English-speaking community to London from Paris, from where it will cover Scandinavia, Germany, and the Netherlands as well as the UK. Prices for the servers, depending on the size of network and speed required, range from UKP50,000 to several hundred thousand.
