Embarcadero Technologies Introduces ER/Studio 2.0; New Visual Data Modeling Tool Eases Quality Database Design.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 1997--Embarcadero Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of innovative tools for building and managing databases, announces ER/Studio(TM) 2.0, a 32-bit visual database design tool for the Windows NT and Windows 95 environments.

The product, which succeeds and replaces ER/1, dramatically upgrades the feature set for users who manage databases as well as for professional data architects.

ER/Studio supports all leading SQL and desktop databases and leverages Embarcadero's expertise in database administration and their understanding of complex DBMS systems. It is targeted at two distinct user groups: (1) database developers and administrators who want an efficient tool solution for creating and maintaining reliable database designs; and (2) professional designers who need strong functionality in creating and synchronizing separate logical and physical designs.

New Interface Supports Designers Throughout Entire Project Lifecycle

The latest version incorporates advanced interface features that raise productivity by facilitating the fluid navigation of large data models, quick access to model data, and the visual filtering of complex information. These and other new features extend ER/Studio's lead as the most usable data modeling tool available: -0-

-- Explorer Interface: Version 2.0 introduces the Model Hierarchy Browser(TM) for point-and-click viewing of all entities and attributes in data models. Select an entity or table in the Model Hierarchy Browser and ER/Studio automatically brings that object into view. A double-click opens the required editor for immediate editing.

-- Tabbed Editors: ER/Studio does not require users to wade through a series of dialogs in order to access vital information. Each object type, such as an entity, relationship, domain or logical key, has a dedicated editor that organizes all information into a single tabbed dialog. As a result, users can access all functionality for that object type from one place.

-- Wizards: ER/Studio offers a set of intelligent wizards that guide users through important procedural tasks, such as generating SQL source code, validating the integrity of data models, or transforming logical to physical designs. With these aids, even inexperienced data modelers can capture the full power and benefits of ER/Studio quickly.

-- Submodels at Your Fingertips: When you need to focus on a specific subject area, you can efficiently create a new subview by simply lassoing the subject area and naming it.

-- Customizable Graphics: ER/Studio offers a number of graphical features that allow users to enhance the visual communication of ideas, such as customizable fonts, background colors, entity box colors and relationship lines.

-- ModelScope(TM) Zoom Window: Data models quickly become too large to fit into a single screen, requiring users to zoom out their view in order to see the entire diagram. The ModelScope zoom provides a separate bird's eye view of a region of the diagram window so users can see detail without having to zoom in.

-- Diagram Tooltips: Pause over an entity, table or relationship and ER/Studio gives you immediate information about that object without having to open its editor.

Built-in Intelligence Ensures Quality Designs - Every Time

ER/Studio automatically helps users to create high quality database designs. It incorporates important features that promote the integrity of data models, including: -0-

-- Automatic migration of foreign keys to ensure referential integrity.

-- Model validation wizards to promote normalization and documentation of designs.

-- Transformation wizard to ensure that physical designs conform to the naming and syntax rules of the target database.

-- Automatic documentation of relationships to clarify their purpose.

True Separation of Logical and Physical Designs for Power Users

ER/Studio has been engineered to accommodate multi-level design work for demanding users. Users can derive any number of physical designs from a single logical design. Unlike other tools, which merely provide different displays of the same underlying data, ER/Studio maintains truly separate logical and physical designs that facilitate denormalization and performance tuning of physical designs without compromising the integrity of the logical design. Moreover, ER/Studio offers bi-directional synchronization of logical and physical designs: users can propagate changes in the logical design to any physical design and vice versa.

Subject Area Modeling to Manage Design Scope

One of the drawbacks of a visual modeling tool can be the diagram clutter that results as data models grow. In order to maintain the proper focus and design scope on key portions of data models, users need to break them down into smaller, more manageable subject areas. ER/Studio offers very fluid management of subject areas through diagram subviews. With a couple of mouse clicks users can create a subview and thereafter manage all of its contents entirely from within the subview.

ER/Studio automatically manages all external dependencies to objects outside of the subview. Subviews are independent graphical displays of all or part of the main diagram. Updates to objects contained in a subview automatically propagate to the main diagram. With subviews, users have the advantage of working in an independent view without the disadvantage of synchronizing data manually.

Communicate Your Data Models over the Web

Communication is an often-overlooked dimension of the data modeling process. In order to design complete business solutions and to achieve organizational support for them, users often must communicate their data models with many constituencies. With ER/Studio, users can disseminate their data models efficiently by exploiting the ubiquity of the Web.

It is the only data modeling tool that is Active-X capable. Users can browse and manage data models created with ER/Studio within the Internet Explorer or any other application that supports OLE-embedding. In addition, ER/Studio can automatically generate complete HTML documentation for data models. With two mouse clicks ER/Studio publishes a complete, navigable documentation set that users can share over an intranet and view with any web browser.

Efficient, Reliable Database Designs

As database administration specialists, Embarcadero understands the challenge of deploying functional database designs that satisfy business requirements on one hand and respect the practical limits of technology on the other hand. ER/Studio leverages the extensive experience that the Company has acquired in helping thousands of major corporations deploy and maintain critical databases. The product design incorporates the insight that we have gained in complying with the naming and syntax rules of many database platforms, designing effective indexes, storing and placing tables and indexes, and effectively using table constraints.

Pricing and Availability

Interested parties can test drive a complimentary, fully functional 30-day evaluation copy of ER/Studio 2.0 by downloading from http://www.embarcadero.com . The product is now available for purchase from Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. and through authorized international distributors. The MSRP is $1,995 per user in North America. For more information, contact Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. at 415/834-3131 or visit the company Web site at http://www.embarcadero.com .

About Embarcadero Technologies, Inc.

Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of innovative tool solutions that help major corporations, financial institutions and government agencies to design, build and manage complex databases. Embarcadero products are used by over 20,000 database designers, developers and administrators throughout the world. Its award-winning database administration tool, DBArtisan, has set the industry standard for ease-of-use, functionality and reliability. Today, over 60% of the Fortune 500 rely on Embarcadero products to manage their databases, including General Electric, Exxon, Chrysler, Phillip Morris, Intel, Walt Disney, Citicorp, Merck, American Express, Fidelity Investments, Boeing, Rockwell International, Prudential Insurance, 3M, AT&T and MCI.

CONTACT: Embarcadero Technologies, Inc.

Gregory M. Keller, 415/834-3131

[e-mail]

http://www.embarcadero.com