Manchester University picks up Concept db++ for its better than SQL query language
Concept asa, Frankfurt, was seen displaying its vendor-independent db++ database management system, Mark John reports from Unix Forum, held in Berlin earlier this year. Quietly – such claims are illegal in Germany – Concept asa software development partner Malcolm Agnew whispered that db++ was between five and six times faster than competitors such as Informix and Oracle. But the real advantage of db++, he continued, is its openness to the Unix operating system which enables the database to be used at the shell level, and the user to go into large applications running alongside the database in a way that the Informix or Oracle user cannot. Meanwhile, Manchester University has chosen the system to train its first-year students on databases because it liked the db++ query language more than SOL. Agnew accepts Concept is much too late into the market and too small to offer any real competition to the big players, but is looking for partners that are prepared to integrate db++ into larger applications. It has also developed a document retrieval system, Citat/X, that runs on top of db++.
DEC prepares to step up eastern push
Last year, Digital Equipment GmbH set up a Berlin subsidiary to handle the ex-DDR market. Since then the operation has, claimed DEC representatives at the show, achieved satisfactory sales of its Unix-based RISC/Ultrix range, although growth has stagnated slightly in recent months – as a result of overall economic-political climate said the spokesman. DEC Germany has apparently agreed a strategy for the East in 1991 with the parent company, but wasn’t prepared to give details other than saying it wants to extend its co-operation with the universities of Leipzig and Dresden on project-specific work, that it is interested in training-up and collaborating further with East German computer manufacturer VEB Kombinat Robotron, and that it intends to set up a proper operation in Dresden – where it presently just has a small office, to give better support and service to the Eastern Lender. PCS Computer System GmbH made one of its first appearances inpublic after DEC took a 65% stake in the $38m a year, 320 staff, Munich company in December – it was previously 100%-owned by the Mannesmann group. According to Ulrich Langer, reseller sales director for North Germany, DEC wanted PCS’ experience in Unix System V, and Mannesmann decided it was no longer part of its strategy to rely on someone else’s Unix machines. For PCS, Langer reckons that DEC’s shareholding will mean more internationalisation for the supplier of the Cadmus 9000 range of Unix systems. Part of this internationalisation could be a return to the UK, where PCS had an unsuccessful and short-lived operation some five years ago. It wasn’t the right time then, says Langer, but goes on to hint that with DEC money behind it, now might be the time. PCS was demonstrating the graphics features of its Cadmus FX.1 Firebox, based on Intel Corp’s 80860 RISC part and Unix V.4. The FX.1 was released about 18 months ago but suffered from compiler instability – problems he claims have now been fully resolved.
Nomina lists 1,000 new Unix programs
Nomina, the Munich-based publishing house, was showing off its bi-annual Isis Unix report, which this time around lists 3,000 Unix programs, and profiles 1,000-odd Unix companies in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Detlev Dehn of Nomina reckoned that in the last six months, over 1,000 new Unix programs have become available to those markets. The Isis Unix report for the first half of the year costs $190 at the current rate – for an extra $42, the subscriber gets the second half report as well.
OPG environment for portable Cobol code
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OPG Organisations Partner GmbH, Bad Oldesloe, was showing its in-house-developed BISS software development environment, written in Cobol and running on Unix System V. The main advantage of BISS, reckons OPG software engineer Hans-Christian Werner, is that any BISS-developed Unix application is eas
ily portable to any other Unix system. OPG has already had a few successes. BISS is used by the large Essen-based Krupp Lonrho transport group, and has been commissioned by the German Research Ministry. At the moment, BISS is available only in its original German version, but the plan is to offer a multi-language product in the not-too distant future.
BSP sees bright prospects in the east
Undeterred by the poor attendance at the show from the East, BSP Software Distribution GmbH, Regensburg, is clearly looking in that direction for more business in 1991. Harry Schneider, in charge of Unix product marketing for the 100-staff, $175m-a-year distributor – which was showing SCO Unix, Informix, Uniplex, and Open Desktop at the Unix Forum – says a Berlin division is to be established in the second quarter with the aim of exploiting the new markets. Schneider admits that under-capitalisation and liquidity problems are endemic in the Eastern market at the moment – Western banks and venture capital funding have not been forthcoming – but ironically money has been coming in from better-off countries such as Czechoslovakia. Schneider wants to build up BSP’s dealer network by around a fifth next year, and is anxious to get more communications products into the BSP range.
Wolf personnel system for Xenix, VMS
Berlin-based Wolf Electronic und Messtechnik GmbH, part of the $12m-a-year Wolf Group, was exhibiting its real-time Unix-based Wolf personnel administration system. Running under Santa Cruz Unix and DEC VMS, the Wolf system is linked to a number of remote clocking-in devices that send data to a constantly-updated Ingres database which can store details of up to 5,000 employees. Information on salaries, clock-in times, holiday allowances and the number of employees available on different shifts can be viewed in up to five different formats, and linked to a printer, the system will issue completed wage slips. In its first year, seven of the $21,000 systems have been sold in Germany – the aim now is to be able to offer it on other hardware.
IQ Products seeks partners with product
IQ Products, Munich is a small outfit that sells Unix and VMS products – Wingz, Saber Software Inc’s Saber-C development environment and Legato Systems Inc’s Legato networker Unix network data security system to the German speaking countries. IQ Products’ Robert Belting says its aim for 1991 is to add to its line, and it desperately needs partners.
