Redwood City, California-based Ross Systems Inc, specialising in applications for the VMS world, has introduced Renaissance CS, its Digital Equipment Corp VAX/VMS-based suite of financial applications and accompanying development environment adapted for use with client-server architectures. Renaissance CS is based on Gembase, the company’s own proprietary development language. It provides support for multiple databases, which enables applications to be processed at the client or the server, depending on the user’s requirements. It provides communications links to a variety of relational databases including Ingres, DEC’s own Rdb, and Oracle – and support for Sybase will be added by the end of the year, the company promises. The client component is scheduled to ship in June with support for Microsoft Corp Windows, Apple Computer Inc Macintosh and the Open Software Foundation’s OSF/Motif. No prices have been set for client implementations. A free server upgrade is available for existing DEC VAX/VMS, OpenVMS, Ultrix and Hewlett-Packard Co HP-UX customers. Support for the Software Foundation’s OSF/1 variant of Unix, and Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT operating system is slated for year-end. In its initial release, Renaissance CS financial applications will include a general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, purchase ordering and encumbrance and currency management. Ross says that it will also provide client-server implementations of Renaissance CS for its manufacturing and distribution software by year-end.
