Developer Press: Ehancements to D/2000

Oracle Announces Significant Enhancements
to Developer/2000

Offers Access to Rival Databases Including Sybase and Informix
Through Strategic Alliance with INTERSOLV and Certified Gateways

Upgrade Release Delivers Native Support for Rdb, Improved Performance, and Global Language Support to Windows Developers

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., May 16, 1995-Oracle Corp. today announced several significant enhancements to its Developer/2000 tool for second generation, client/server development. New offerings include an upgrade to Developer/2000 which provides a native driver for the Oracle Rdb database, certification of the recently announced Oracle Open Gateways and a strategic alliance with Intersolv Inc. that will enable Developer/2000 users to access data from alternative data sources including Sybase, Informix and Ingres.
With these announcements, Oracle developers will benefit from direct, efficient access to data stored in Oracle7, Oracle Rdb, Sybase System 10, Informix OnLine, Informix SE, Computer Associates CA-OpenIngres and Microsoft SQL Server and Access databases.
"Developer/2000 is the only second generation client/server tool suite on the market," said Sohaib Abbasi, senior vice president of Oracle's Tools Product Division. "In addition to advanced second generation features like drag-and-drop application partitioning, developers using Developer/2000 now have efficient access to enterprise data no matter where it resides, at no extra cost."

Efficient Access to Enterprise Data
With Developer/2000, users can now more easily leverage data no matter where it is stored on the network. Oracle and INTERSOLV have entered into a strategic alliance in which Oracle will bundle INTERSOLV's DataDirect ODBC drivers for Sybase, Informix and Ingres with Developer/2000. These drivers will permit developers to transparently access data stored in databases from Sybase, Informix and Ingres from within the Developer/2000 environment to ensure delivery of the most comprehensive information to the end-user.
"INTERSOLV is widely recognized as a market leader for providing high-quality, high-performance, robust drivers for multiple data sources on multiple platforms," said Gary Greenfield, chief operations officer at INTERSOLV. "We are very pleased to team with Oracle to deliver enterprise solutions to our mutual customers."
INTERSOLV's DataDirect ODBC drivers provide transparent data access to more than 35 different DBMSs and support the most popular client/server operating systems-Macintosh, HP-UX, IBM AIX, OS/2, Solaris, Windows, Windows NT and Windows '95. Today, more than 65,000 customers are using DataDirect to achieve transparent data access. These drivers will be delivered this summer with Windows, Macintosh and UNIX versions of Developer/2000 at no additional charge to supported customers.
In addition to the alliance with INTERSOLV, Developer/2000 will be supported immediately with Oracle's Open Gateway family. Oracle gateways allow for transparent access to multiple data sources. All data appears as though it resides in a local Oracle7 database so a developer does not need to know the physical location or source of the data being accessed, and can retrieve the data without leaving the Developer/2000 environment.
Oracle gateways provide Developer/2000 users with access to data stored in Rdb, System 10, Informix OnLine, Informix SE, CA-OpenIngres and DB2 databases as well as IBM's APPC and DRDA for accessing data from company's legacy systems.

Developer/2000: New Features and Functionality
The first upgrade to Developer/2000 is available immediately at no cost to supported customers. Enhancements to the latest version of Developer/2000 include Oracle Rdb support, performance improvements, improved documentation and reports, background query processing and Semitic and multibyte language support. These enhancements build on Developer/2000's second generation functionality and deliver a more productive environment to client/server developers. New features in this release include:

-- Support for Rdb: This high-speed direct driver for Rdb, built by Oracle's New England Development Center, delivers ODBC-based, high-performance access to Rdb data from Developer/2000 without requiring any changes to the source code.

-- Performance improvements: Libraries of shared code can now be created with source code stripped out to speed the execution time and increase security of the source code. Preloading of shared dynamic linked libraries (DLLs) also is supported to dramatically improve start-up time.

-- Improved documentation and reporting facilities: Oracle has improved the Developer/2000 documentation to include new sample applications with reusable objects, and added a facility for automatically generating system documentation for team development of systems built using the tool. A "frequently asked questions" document has been added to significantly reduce the learning curve.

-- Non-blocking SQL: With this release, Developer/2000 is the only tool on the market to allow reports, charts and ad hoc queries, which are often long-running, to be run against Oracle7 in the background. Users can continue working while these functions are being executed.

-- Support for Semitic and multibyte languages: Developer/2000 now delivers support for Semitic (Arabic and Hebrew) and Asian (multibyte Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai) languages in Developer/2000 applications without changes to the source code. A single application can be created with the ability to be dynamically displayed in localized languages at run time.

Developer/2000 and Designer/2000 are Oracle's second generation client/server development tools which bring high-end programming features to Windows developers. Together, Developer/2000 and Designer/2000 offer the most integrated suite for all development, spanning rapid application development to high-end systems modeling.
Oracle Corp., a $2 billion company with headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, is the world's leading supplier of information management software. Oracle develops and markets Oracle Media Server and the Oracle7 family of software products for database management; Developer/2000 and Designer/2000, tools for enterprise-wide, client/server application development; and Oracle Applications, packaged client/server solutions for commercial accounting, manufacturing, distribution, government accounting, human resources and project control. Oracle software runs on personal digital assistants, set-top devices, PCs, workstations, minicomputers, mainframes, and massively parallel computers. The company offers its products, along with related consulting, education, and support services, in more than 90 countries around the world.
For more information about Oracle, please contact Oracle's headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif. at (415) 506-7000. Oracle's World Wide Web server address is http://www.oracle.com/.

Trademarks
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. Oracle7, Oracle Media Server, Oracle Applications, Developer/2000 and Designer/2000 are trademarks of Oracle Corporation. All other product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.