SAS Institute Introduces Universal OBDC Driver.

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 1997--SAS Institute Inc. today introduced a Universal ODBC Driver. The SAS(TM) Universal ODBC Driver opens up SAS data to ODBC applications without having access to the rest of SAS(R) software. SAS data can be generated in the PC, Unix or OpenVMS environment. It lets you use the rest of SAS software to build and populate a data mart or data warehouse, and then give the end user to access the data with their ODBC-compliant applications.

The SAS Universal ODBC driver enables you to open and query the following types of data sources from Windows 95 and Windows NT applications that support the ODBC standard: SAS data sets, CFO Vision Financial Database (FDB) files, SAS multi-dimensional database (MDDB) files, SAS catalogs, and JMP files. "The audience for the SAS Universal ODBC Driver is the person who needs a low-cost, read-only solution to access SAS data through an ODBC compliant application," said Darrell Barton, SAS Institute product manager for the U-ODBC. "For example, they may want to analyze a SAS data set created on a Unix system in Excel."

The Universal ODBC driver user is looking for low-cost, read-only access to SAS data. The cross host access capabilities of the U-ODBC allow you to access SAS data formats created on non-Windows platforms. "It can read data from non-native systems such as HP-UX, INTEL ABI, AIX, DG UX, MIPS API, Solaris 1 & 2, SunOS, OS/2, MAC 68K, MAC PPC, OpenVMS on VAX and Alpha," said Barton. "The data can be moved to the local system or can remain on the non-native system and accessed through either the FTP or HTTP protocols. All you need is local or network access to the data and the U-ODBC driver."

The SAS Universal ODBC Driver is available on Windows 95 and Windows NT. Technical requirements include access to SAS data sources, the SAS Universal ODBC driver, and an ODBC compliant application.

The SAS Universal ODBC driver is sold through book sales. A 30-day free trial of the U-ODBC can be downloaded from www.sas.com in the Demos and Downloads area. The U-ODBC can also be purchased from this area. Pricing for the U-ODBC driver is: 1 driver $99.00, 5 drivers $325.00 , 10 drivers $500.00, 100 drivers $3,500.00, and 1000 drivers $20,000.00.

Now in its 21st year, SAS Institute is one of the top ten largest independent software vendors in the world, and is the largest privately held software company. The leading provider of data warehousing and decision-support software, the Institute has won DM Review*s 1997 Data Acquisition/Delivery award for Data Warehousing. Other awards include the reader-selected 1996 and 1997 Datamation magazine Data Warehousing Product of the Year award, the 1997 Database Programming & Design Database Dozen award, and Software Magazine*s Editor*s Choice award for decision-support.

SAS Institute provides an integrated suite of information-delivery tools that allow companies to transform the wide variety of data within their organization into information that business users need to make decisions. To make data useful, SAS software collects data from almost every platform and data format; cleans and transforms data into information that users will understand; and stores that information in an open and efficient data warehouse structure. To explore that information, SAS software includes OLAP, query and reporting, EIS, data mining, analysis, data visualization, and application-development interfaces. SAS software is client/server and Web enabled.

SAS Institute also delivers business solutions that are complete packages for financial consolidation and reporting, clinical trials analysis, oil and gas analysis and IT service management. Currently, SAS software and business solutions are being used at more than 31,000 business, government, and university sites in more than 120 countries. -0-

Please visit SAS Institute*s Web site: www.sas.com

SAS is a registered trademark of SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All other tradenames referenced are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: SAS Institute Inc.

Wally Maczka or Pamela Meek, 919/677-8000

www.sas.com