Of course this could not possibly be an adjunct to the IBM Corp Information Warehouse announcement coming soon to a trade journal near you, but Information Builders Inc, rumoured to be sole International Alliance Partner in the forthcoming distributed data jamboree, has just launched HiperFocus: the product is described as a high performance version of Focus for MVS/ESA designed to take advantage of IBM’s ESA/370 and ESA/390 architectures: performance enhancements, particularly in reporting, result from the product’s input-output avoidance, and its use of processor storage instead of external devices to sort data – with the potential for greater efficiency, reduced disk access, and up to 30% shorter elapsed times, HiperFocus is claimed to minimise the gap between fast computers and slow input-output devices – no need for a DBC/1012 then; the first release of the product, containing new storage management and a rewritten input-output subsystem, will be available at the end of the month – the second release, with sort enhancements and VSAM/Focus file support, is scheduled to ship by March 31 next year; HiperFocus costs from $13,300 to $22,000 according to processor.
