Oracle Corp and 3Com Corp are working on miniature database software for 3Com Corp’s PalmPilot that will allow mobile workers to tap into server-based information, according to a Reuters report. The technology would enable PalmPilots to display pricing and customer information from central databases while on the road and send it back, the report said. The product is likely to be a variant on the company’s existing Oracle Lite application (CI No 3,302). Current versions of Oracle Lite will fit into between 350k and 750k of RAM and require less than 2.5Mb of hard disk space. They are aimed at PCs, laptops and Network Computers. A communications development kit for the PalmPilot is expected to emerge in August, and Oracle Lite for PalmPilot in the first half of 1999. Oracle is also working on versions of the database to run on Windows CE-based handhelds. Separately, Oracle told InfoWorld that its much-delayed Windows NT version of the Rdb database would be out by the end of this year. Originally expected in 1997 (CI No 2,926), Rdb8 for NT has now moved into beta testing. Oracle acquired the Rdb VMS relational database from Digital Equipment Corp in 1994, and still derives around $100m in revenuers annually from it. But the product is unlikely to be of interest to customers beyond the dwindling VAX user base.
