Between now and year-end, Informix Software Inc will plumb Java technologies into its core database engine under a program it calls Universal Java. Oracle Corp and Sybase Corp are only doing Java as add-ons, in its view. Next quarter Informix will send a version of its Dynamic Server to beta (the object-relational Universal Server database is now a Universal Data Option add-on to the Dynamic Server relational system) including a Java virtual machine that will enable customers to execute Java applications, Java DataBlades and Java stored procedures directly against the database. The Dynamic Server-with-JVM will ship by year-end, the Java DataBlade and stored procedure developer kit in the third or fourth quarter. By the fourth quarter Informix will also have extended Dynamic Server to support EJB Enterprise Java Bean containers. A Java virtual table interface will enable SQL or EJB queries to be executed seamlessly against the database and information to be recovered from Java classes or conventional tables. Data Director for SQL and Java is Informix’s graphical database modeling environment. Application programming tools are provided by partners such as Symantec Corp – others will follow – with support for Java standards such as JDBC 2.0 and SQLJ on its way.