Although ICL Plc has delayed releasing its DAIS object-oriented development environment and systems integration tool until the end of this month, it already has a couple of new applications planned for the environment. One is the so-called distributed multidatabase DAIS Information Service, due later this year. DAIS/IS enables users to access, update and modify data residing in heterogeneous databases, independent of database structure or management type, operating system or physical location, as if it resided in one virtual database. The product comes in three modules – the IS-client, which comes with an application programming interface; the IS-server; and LIS modules, which provide front-end servers that access the database management systems. Applications can be developed using any environment that uses C calls, and will be database-independent. DAIS/IS will initially support Ingres, Oracle, Informix and ICL’s own IDMSX databases, and its VME, Unix System V.4, and Santa Cruz Operation Inc Unix, SunOS and HP-UX. The second application is PowerVision/EM, ICL’s document imaging package, which will be integrated with ProcessWise, a graphical workflow and administration tool that already has DAIS embedded in it. The first release of PowerVision/EM, which will support SunOS and personal computers running Microsoft Corp’s Windows, is due in June. A second version will follow in November, which will include a code generator so developers can automatically produce workflow code.
