AVS/Express V2 brings "visual intelligence" to OLAP and other data mining applications; Allows developers to easily integrate 3D interactive visualization into Windows and UNIX applications.

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 1995-- Advanced Visual Systems, Inc. (AVS) today introduced AVS/Express V2, the industry's first visual application development tool that converts any type of data of any quantity and complexity into insightful, interactive 3D visual representations. AVS/Express V2 represents a new breed of software, called "visual intelligence" tools, that for the first time enables developers to easily integrate interactive multidimensional visualization capabilities into new or existing Windows and UNIX applications.

AVS/Express is an important new tool because it brings the high-end graphical display and analysis capabilities once reserved for scientific and technical researchers to a whole new group of commercial "data mining" applications in telecommunications, financial services, sales & marketing, and business geographic information systems (GIS) markets. Until now, the deluge of data consumed by these applications has overwhelmed the usefulness of existing products such as statistical analyses packages, spreadsheets and graphing tools. AVS/Express brings visual intelligence to these emerging On- Line Analysis Processing (OLAP) applications and the growing use of multidimensional databases.

For instance, J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated, a global banking firm, is using AVS/Express to explore financial market conditions in numerous ways. The company developed a 3D spatial rendering of mortgage prepayments and defaults shown on a map of the U.S. that allows investors to better understand the effects of market conditions nationwide.

According to the company, AVS' visualization tools enable them to analyze large amounts of financial data and identify relationships that would not be apparent without the use of a visual interface. Traders are able to manage their business more effectively because they have a more intuitive view of the market.

Other real-world examples in which AVS/Express makes data mining applications come alive visually include:

o Telecommunications companies that collect gigabytes of data on calling patterns to design better network configurations.

o Large consumer retailers that mine vast OLAP data warehouses of credit card usage information to study buying patterns.

o Medical imaging companies that can visualize gamma camera data more effectively to make more accurate diagnoses.

o Oil companies that can precisely interpret gigabytes of seismic sounding data to discover a new oil field or plan the optimal drilling approaches.

AVS/Express V2 highlights

AVS/Express is a multi-platform development environment that lets users easily build interactive multidimensional visualization capabilities into new or existing applications for Windows 95, Windows NT and most popular Motif/UNIX platforms. Using a unique object-oriented visual programming paradigm, users can quickly assemble components from proven GUI, graphics and visualization libraries using a "drag-and-drop" interface, eliminating time-consuming programming in a traditional 3GL and 4GL language.

In version 2, AVS enhanced the AVS/Express architecture with a range of new features designed for commercial data mining and visual OLAP applications, including:

New database interfaces - AVS/Express V2 features a new database kit for linking 3D visualization applications to the most popular commercial relational database systems. It provides interfaces to Oracle7, Sybase and Informix, as well as future support planned for Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), Microsoft Corp.'s application programming interface that allows applications written for the Windows and UNIX operating systems to communicate with relational database management systems. This database independence is particularly important for commercial users because it allows them to work with their database of choice, as well as build visual applications that draw from a variety of data sources in a heterogeneous database environment.

We are very excited about the enhancements to the AVS/Express V2 release. The new database kit will allow our customers to rapidly develop and deploy sophisticated visualization applications that use Oracle7 with the Spatial Data Option to manage very large and complex spatial databases, said Steven Cooperman, director of spatial information systems at Oracle Government, a division of Oracle Corporation. The combination of AVS/Express V2's database kit and the Oracle database represents a major leap forward in achieving interoperability between commercial off-the-shelf relational database technology and client-based visualization applications.

New AVS/Express components - Developers can now quickly add high-end visualization capabilities to new or existing applications by simply integrating their AVS/Express-developed application as a run-time component. Through the software's visual programming environment, users can create and modify objects with drag-and-drop ease, and then automatically combine them in higher-level application objects that can be called by the existing application. AVS/Express V2 automatically generates the object as a C++ class library. It can also be integrated into Windows applications using Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 2.0.

New 2D and 3D graphing and visualization capabilities - AVS/Express V2 features enhanced Graphics Display and Data Visualization Kits with new rendering capabilities and tools for displaying and manipulating text, 2D graphs, and 2D and 3D geometric objects. These enhancements include advanced graphing and charting with sophisticated axis control, 2D annotation for text and graphics, 2D geometry editing, color management tools, and over 20 new visualization techniques.

In good company

As part of today's AVS/Express V2 introduction, AVS also revealed major business partners and customers that have committed to the AVS/Express platform. AVS is teaming with leading industry software, database and OLAP vendors including Oracle, Applix, Arbor Software, OpenGIS and ESRI to integrate AVS/Express development solutions. Major customers who have already committed to AVS include British Telecom, Deutche Telecom, ADAC, J.P. Morgan, Hughes, Barclaycard, Autometric, Intera and HP Lightwave.

Availability and pricing

AVS/Express V2 is available immediately on Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 95 and most major UNIX and midrange platforms including Digital UNIX, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Silicon Graphics IRIX and Sun Solaris and SunOS.

North American list pricing begins at $18,000. Quantity discounts are available.

Advanced Visual Systems Inc., headquartered in Waltham, Mass., is the leading developer "visual intelligence" software interactive multidimensional visualization applications and development tools that transform large amounts of complex data into visual information. AVS' "visual intelligence" products deliver insight and competitive advantage to customers in markets such telecommunications, financial services, medical imaging, sales & marketing, aerospace, government research, science & technology, manufacturing, and business geographic information systems (GIS) markets.

CONTACT: Ian Reid

Advanced Visual Systems, Inc.

617-890-4300

E-mail: [e-mail]

or

Glen M. Zimmerman

Beaupre & Co. Public Relations, Inc.

603-436-6690

E-mail: [e-mail]