PLAY TIME
Cognos released a 32-bit version of its OLAP client tool, PowerPlay 5.0. Intended for multidimensional analysis of corporate data, PowerPlay 5.0 offers native connections to Arbor's EssBase, Oracle's Express, and Pilot's Lightship OLAP servers. Cognos also announced PowerPlay 5.0 Server, which offers increased data volumes and enhanced administrative capabilities.
PowerPlay 5.0 Client runs on Windows 3.1, Windows NT, and Windows 95, and enables users to analyze data sets of up to two million records. PowerPlay 5.0 Server is an add-on to the PowerPlay Client, and it creates a compressed, multidimensional extract for tabular data sources such as relational databases or flat files. It stores the extract as a BLOB within a relational database. PowerPlay 5.0 Client costs $695; PowerPlay Server is priced at $14,995 for Unix platforms and $4995 for NT platforms. Contact Cognos, 67 S. Bedford St., Burlington, MA 01803-5164; 800-223-2321, 617-229-6600, or fax 617-229-9828; http://
www.cognos.com.
BRIO AND BUTTER
Brio Technology Inc. announced BrioQuery Enterprise, a desktop decision-support tool with integrated query,
interactive charting, and reporting capabilities. The tool is fully 32-bit native and offers users the ability to perform multidimensional analysis offline with its desktop OLAP engine.
The Interactive Charting feature offers interactive graphical analysis tools that enable users to create multiple charts from different perspectives. The Visual Reporting feature produces reports that contain analytical tables, PivotSheets, and 3D charts. The desktop OLAP facilities include slice-and-dice, drill-down, custom segmentation, and time-series analysis.
BrioQuery Enterprise is available on Windows, Macintosh, and Unix, serving Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.x, MacOS, PowerMac, and Unix Motif. BrioQuery Enterprise ships in three editions: Navigator, Explorer, and Designer. Pricing ranges from $795 to $4995, depending on edition and system configuration. Contact Brio Technology Inc., 650 Castro St., Ste. 500, Mountain View, CA 94041; 415-961-4110 or fax 415-961-4572; http://www.brio.com.
WHAT'S YOUR FORTE?
Forté Software Inc. announced Forté Express, a visual application generator for high-end client/server environments. Forté Express is an add-on to the Forté Application Environment. It generates the user interface and database access components of object-oriented, multi-tier applications.
Forté Express generates default user interface definitions that include window layouts, menus, and buttons. Forté Express also creates database interfaces to Oracle, Sybase, Informix Online, Microsoft SQL Server, Rdb, and IBM DB2/6000, as well as Microsoft's ODBC. Forté Express includes a library of database interactions that generate SQL. A site license for Forté Express is $20,000. Contact Forté Software Inc., 1800 Harrison St., Oakland, CA 94612; 510-869-3400 or fax 510-834-1508; http://
www.forte.com.
THE BIG EASY
Good news for those of you who still use the calculator to add up numbers in your Excel spreadsheets. easyBASE Software announced version 1.0 of its easyBASE object-oriented database. Created for the business user rather than the DBA, easyBASE is built with proprietary object-oriented database technology called Semantic Database Modeling (SDM) to enable users to create database applications without using relational linking or programming. Business activities or subjects are defined as SDM objects and arranged in a model using drag-and-drop on a graphical interface. The product is scheduled to ship this summer at a price of $99. Contact easyBASE Software, 1200 Main St., Irvine, CA 92714; 714-262-2992 or email easybase@trendline.co.il.
OUT OF THE STORM
Software AG announced Natural LightStorm, a development environment for extending enterprise applications and collaborating with end users on new applications. A Windows-based tool, Natural LightStorm provides GUI-based development for a variety of databases and operating systems. It also has facilities for building event-driven graphical applications, and offers 32-bit implementation, a graphical report writer and debugger, and a central repository for team development. Contact Software AG, 11190 Sunrise Valley Dr., Reston, VA 22091; 703-860-5050 or fax 703-391-6731; http://
www.softwareag.com.
EXPRESS LANE
Oracle Corp. announced Oracle Express Objects, a new object-oriented development environment is intended as a companion product to Oracle Express Analyzer, Oracle's object-oriented data analysis tool for end users. Oracle Express Objects speeds development by supporting OLAP object reuse, and it enables developers to build custom OLAP applications and pass them on to Oracle Express Analyzer users in other areas of the company. Contact Oracle Corp., 500 Oracle Pkwy., Redwood Shores, CA 94065; 415-506-4176 or fax 415-506-7132; http://www.oracle.com.
InTek Technologies Inc. (Atlanta) announced the newest addition to its Vivid product suite, Vivid Resolution 1.0. The new tool generates fully functional applications from visual application and data models. Contact InTek Technologies Inc., 770-840-2500 or fax 770-840-2525; http://www.intekinc.com.
Oberon Software Inc.'s (Cambridge, Mass.) Prospero data integration tool now supports Lotus Notes release 4.0. Prospero now supports the fundamental Notes data types as well as a translation between Notes internal rich text and Microsoft RTF. Contact Oberon Software Inc., 617-494-0990 or fax 617-494-0414. Menai Corp. (Menlo Park, Calif.) is shipping a Microsoft Visual Basic version of its Gamelon File I/O Library, an object-oriented programming tool. The company also announced that all Gamelon platforms support Unicode. In the next few months Gamelon also plans to add support for Java, Sun Solaris, and Sun OS. Contact Menai Corp., 415-853-6450 or fax 415-853-6453.
The Data Access Division of Sterling Software Inc. (Fairfield, Iowa) announced two new releases in its Clear product line. The first, Clear:Access 3.0 for Windows, includes Intelligent Data Objects that enable users to obtain multidimensional views of data and use charts for data visualization. The second release is Clear:Manage 3.0, a new version of Sterling's data access tool that offers support for Informix. Contact Sterling Software Inc., 515-472-7077 or fax 515-472-7198; http://www.sterling.com. Softbridge Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) expanded its Automated Test Facility (ATF) to support enterprise applications developed under Windows 95. Contact Softbridge Inc., 617-576-2257 or fax 617-864-7747.
Powersoft Corp. (Concord, Mass.) announced Powersoft Optima++, a new RAD tool that helps programmers build native 32-bit C++ client/server and Internet applications. Based on Watcom C/C++ compiler technology, it has a component-centric architecture and supports OLE and native component technology. Contact Powersoft Corp., 508-287-1500 or fax 508-369-3997; http://www.powersoft.com.
Wall Data Inc. (Kirkland, WA) is shipping Salsa for the Desktop, a tool for mainstream Windows users who want to create their own custom personal or small workgroup applications. Wall Data also gets kudos for its Salsa Web page (http://www.salsa.walldata.com), which presents an interactive murder mystery that takes place at the fictitious Club Salsa. The PR hype is minimal, the story is intriguing and updated every two weeks, and the art is impressive -- the work of designer Dave McKean, who created the award-winning cover to the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge album. Wall Data is also now shipping MacRumba for the Mainframe, thus completing its Macintosh connectivity solution for IBM systems. Contact Wall Data Inc., 206-442-9257 or fax 206-621-7047.
Actuate Software Corp. (San Mateo, Calif.) is shipping several components of the Actuate Reporting System 1.0, including the Actuate Developer Workbench, Actuate End User Desktop, and Actuate Viewer. Contact Actuate Software Corp., 415-638-2000 or fax 415-638-2020.
IBM Corp. (Somers, N.Y.) expanded its VisualAge for C++ and VisualAge for Smalltalk products to support Windows NT and Windows 95. VisualAge for C++ for Windows version 3.5 includes the IBM Open Class Library of prebuilt components and a data access builder that has been enhanced to support ODBC. VisualAge for Smalltalk for Windows version 3.0 includes approximately 2500 predefined classes and parts, as well as open support for database access. Contact IBM Corp., 800-426-3333 or http://
www.ibm.com.
Precise Software Solutions Inc. (Braintree, Mass.) introduced Inspect/SQL, the newest addition to the Precise/SQL suite of application performance tools. Inspect/SQL is a software tool to help DBAs and application developers diagnose Oracle database performance problems. Contact Precise Software Solutions Inc., 617-380-3300 or fax 617-380-3349.