UniSQL Release 3.5 Takes Full Advantage of Emerging SQL3 Syntax Standard; Speed Improvement Locks in Leadership.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 1996--UniSQL, Inc. today announced that UniSQL 3.5, the latest version of the company's leading object relational multimedia database software, takes full advantage of the emerging SQL3 (ANSI X3H2) syntax specification.

The SQL3 specification, a standard sponsored by both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO), is aimed at providing a complete language for the definition and management of complex objects. Adhering to the SQL3 definition, UniSQL 3.5 lets organizations exploit the advantages provided by object-oriented development and database technology, without giving up relational database technology for mission-critical applications.

UniSQL 3.5 is also optimized to provide dramatically improved scalability and enhanced performance for large database support. Unlike other object relational multimedia databases that support in the tens of users, UniSQL 3.5 scales linearly or better to support hundreds of users. In tests performed by UniSQL and modeled after the University of Wisconsin's OO7 benchmark, UniSQL 3.5 beat OODBMSs in overall scalability and performance.

The OO7 benchmark is designed to test traversal, update, and query capabilities of object database systems. It is considered the "de facto" standard measure of OODBMS performance. While the OO7 benchmark is designed primarily for OODBMSs, UniSQL is the only object relational multimedia database which can run the test.

UniSQL 3.5 provides reliable support for large and complex data types, transparent integration of data from a variety of unrelated systems, and practical and efficient real-world modeling of entities -- such as business documents, complex product configurations, or dynamic global networks.

Leadership in Standards

UniSQL recognized early on that a single, standard query language (SQL) was essential to the convergence of object and relational database technology and has been a prime contributor towards many of the initial efforts towards SQL standards. "We pioneered the development of a standards-based object oriented query language back in the early 1990s," said Dr. Won Kim, founder and president of UniSQL, Inc.

"It has long been our vision that companies should not be forced to chose between object and relational technology, as both offer invaluable capabilities to those looking to better manage and utilize information. As a result of our contribution in determining the direction of SQL3, UniSQL's object model mirrors the SQL3 specification AD this is an excellent demonstration of the realization of our vision."

"One reason we chose UniSQL is that standards are important to us and our customers," said E. Scott Menter, president of Enterprise Systems Management and a UniSQL 3.5 beta customer. "Our resource change management product, UNameIt, takes full advantage of our ability to use SQL3 to query the database. With 3.5, UniSQL has a product with the performance and reliability characteristics that we insist on."

UniSQL 3.5

Available today, UniSQL 3.5 offers complete relational and object-oriented multimedia data technologies in a single, general purpose object model. UniSQL 3.5 provides support for features of the SQL3 specification such as object identities for table rows; support for sets, multi-sets and lists; collection-derived tables; table hierarchies and trigger mechanisms. UniSQL 3.5 now integrates the following technology components.

The UniSQL Object Relational Multimedia Foundation

The foundation for UniSQL's object relational multimedia technology is the UniSQL Server AD the world's first commercial client-server object-relational multimedia database system. UniSQL Server provides reliable support for large complex data types, with sophisticated SQL3 query facilities for accessing them, support for multimedia data, transparent integration of data from a variety of database sources and real-world modeling of complex entities.

UniSQL Server consists of two components:

-- UniSQL/X DBMS -- UniSQL Server's unified object-relational multimedia database engine supports classes, objects, methods, arbitrary data types, inheritance, encapsulation, and more.

-- UniSQL/M Multidatabase -- UniSQL Server's revolutionary transparent access to existing relational, object-oriented, and pre-relational databases, and file systems.

Additionally, UniSQL provides several tools and interfaces for use with UniSQL Server:

-- The UniSQL VisualEditor is a GUI-based database schema and data definition, management, and viewing tool.

-- The UniSQL C++ Interface is UniSQL's ODMG-compliant interface for C++ language users.

-- The UniSQL Smalltalk Interface integrates ParcPlace-Digitalk's ObjectWorks/ Smalltalk programming language and Object Technology's ENVY Development Environment with the UniSQL Server.

-- Interactive and Embedded SQL/X (ANSI SQL with full object extensions).

-- An industry-standard ODBC interface.

Multimedia Data Integration

The UniSQL Multimedia Framework enables an organization to manage all types of sophisticated multimedia information and multimedia devices with the same level of reliability and consistency that relational systems provide for simple numbers, dates, and strings. An integral part of the UniSQL/X DBMS, the UniSQL Open Media Framework allows users to easily add support for new multimedia data types, and even provides transparent access to existing multimedia information stored in operating system files -- again, with full database services.

Multidatabase Database Integration

UniSQL/M Multidatabase System (an integral part of the UniSQL Server), provides the first true multi-vendor database integration capability. This data integration capability allows you to map and integrate a wide variety of existing database sources, including ORACLE, SYBASE, SQL Server, INFORMIX, CA-INGRES, SYBASE's OmniConnect, UniSQL, and even mainframe databases, as a single, logical database system.

This system can be accessed through standard tools and interfaces, just as though the data was stored inside the UniSQL Server. UniSQL also provides the freedom to map non-object data as relations or as objects, with full support for encapsulation, composition, polymorphism, and inheritance, including automatic global transaction management and transaction coordination that span multi-vendor database boundaries.

Standards

UniSQL has always been a major leader and contributor to the standards process. They are the only voting member on the ODMG and SQL3 panels. The company was also the first member to endorse and support ODMG, and they have supported ODBC for over two years. In addition to supporting SQL3, UniSQL also conforms to other important industry computing standards, including the Object Management Group's (OMG) Core Object Model, the

Object Database Management Group's (ODMG) C++ and Smalltalk binding specifications, ANSI SQL-92, and the Petrotechnical Open Software Corp.'s (POSC) Data Access & Exchange Facility (DAEF).

Interfaces to the UniSQL Server include ODMG compliant C++ and ODMG-based Smalltalk; a C API; Microsoft's Visual C++, and ODBC; ParcPlace-Digitalk's VisualWorks/Smalltalk, Interactive.

Pricing

Pricing for UniSQL Server with multidatabase capability and multimedia framework starts at $10,800 for a 4-user license on Windows NT, and $12,000 for a 4-user license on UNIX.

About UniSQL, Inc.

UniSQL, Incorporated is the leading provider of database management software that allows organizations to fully exploit the advantages of both relational and object-oriented technology, and at the same time, manage all data types with the same level of reliability and consistency that relational-only systems have provided for simple numbers, characters, and strings.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas and founded by Dr. Won Kim, the privately-held company serves hundreds of customers worldwide including Cincom, Dow Jones, EDS, Korea Telecom, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and U.S. Army.

For additional information, contact UniSQL at 512-343-7297 or on the World Wide Web at http://www.unisql.com. UniSQL's current press materials are also available on the Web in Adobe Acrobat format, at http://www.p2pr.com.

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Note to Editors: UniSQL is a registered trademark of UniSQL, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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