Having tried out just about all the object-oriented databases out there, and signed agreements with the developers of quite a few, IBM Corp’s Programming Systems Division is phasing out all other agreements and signed a strategic partnership agreement with Object Design Inc (CI No 2,156). It says it will use the Burlington, Massachusetts-based firm’s ObjectStore object database for all of its future object-based application development. To cement the deal, IBM has invested $27m for an equity stake in the firm – Philips Electronics NV and Eastman Kodak Co also have holdings. IBM plans to use ObjectStore in more than 50 object projects that it has under way. Products will begin shipping by the end of the year, according to IBM’s vice-president of software engineering Irve Trager. First up will be a central object-oriented repository for AD/Cycle, now renamed the Application Development Platform. This is IBM’s troubled attempt to develop a complete local network-based application development environment for client-server systems – IBM failed outright with AD/Cycle for MVS, and abandoned it last year. An ObjectStore repository for Information Warehouse, IBM’s corporate software architecture for accessing data across System Application Architecture systems, is also planned. Future workflow management, document management and compiler tools will implement Object Design technology. ObjectStore will also feature in IBM’s Distributed System Object Model – an object-oriented schema that provides a common mechanism for communicating between objects.

Persistant

IBM intends to integrate parts of ObjectStore with DSOM to help in the identification and storage of persistant and non-persistant data. It will also use ObjectStore to recognise code, data and objects written in different progamming languages. Sun Microsystems Inc’s Distributed Objects Everywhere project also uses aspects of ObjectStore. Object-oriented versions of AIX and OS/2 will also use ObjectStore subsets, and Object Design is currently negotiating to get its stuff into the IBM-Apple Computer Inc Taligent Inc object operating system effort. IBM and Object Design plan to develop a series of products linking ObjectStore to IBM’s range of databases. First is an object-oriented interface between ObjectStore and DB/2 to enable users to view relational data without using SQL commands directly. To do this, an interface will be built to IBM’s database access technology, the Distributed Relational Database Architecture – support for third party DRDA-compliant databases will follow later next year. An SQL gateway will follow. Now that it is getting married, IBM is tearing up its object date book and says that existing object projects and software using technology from companies such as Versant Object Technology Inc and Objectivity Inc will be moved over to ObjectStore in their next releases.