Sun User ’91 starts today and runs for three days at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. It opens at 10am and closes at 5pm (4.30 on the last day). The concurrent conference is run by the Sun User Group.
New front-end tool for Tekbase engineering database from Leading Technology
London-based Leading Technology Products Ltd is to reveal a new software tool that provides a graphical front-end to its TekBase database at the Sun User Show in Birmingham this week. The product, called Kingfisher, provides a highly visual user interface to the database, and closely integrates database and data analysis capabilities, according to company spokesman Michael Cole. Aimed, like Tekbase, at engineers and scientists, Kingfisher obviates the need for users to have a database background, and provides icon-style tools for retrieving data, setting relational conditions and applying mathematical functions to the data. On screen, the database structure is shown through tables and columns, rather like a spreadsheet, so that users can point at columns rather than typing in a name. Kingfisher uses a client-server architecture and works under X Window and OSF/Motif, so theoretically at least it could also be used to front-end other databases – although Cole warns that because Tekbase is focused on scientific and engineering users, other databases might be found deficient in some of the functionality. Data can also be displayed graphically using the data analysis tools in a variety of formats, from two-dimensional charts to polar plots and waterfall displays. Also at the show, Leading Technology will introduce a new scripting language called TSL, which will enable Motif or Open Look applications to be built very simply, says Cole. Not intended to be a heavyweight 4GL, TSL is instead a lightweight tool for building applications within an engineering environment. A complete package, including Tekbase, costs around UKP10,000 for four users. In the US, Tekbase products are now available through DataViews developer VI Corp, currently showing the new products under wraps to clients such as Boeing and NASA. Originally only on Hewlett-Packard Co hardware, Tekbase is now available on Sun Microsystems, IBM, Digital Equipment Corp and Silicon Graphics Inc Unix machines.
Tandon shows its Sparc market entry
Tandon Corp, a key Sparcsystem OEM customer that is one of the few with experience of volume shipments, is using Europe as the test-bed for its venture into RISC-based workstations. Tandon struck an OEM deal with Solbourne Computer Corp back in March, and has now begun shipments of re-badged low-end Solbourne machines in the UK, Germany and France. There are two systems, the 13.3 SPECmark SPC 5000 and the 18.3 SPECmark SPC 5100. Tandon expects around 50 of its dealers will be capable of selling and supporting the workstations, and hopes to sell them both to the small CAD/CAM user and to large corporates looking for Unix-based machines. US and Far East launches are likely to take place next year. The company is also considering the portable S3000 that Solbourne originally introduced in Japan only. At the same time, Tandon launched its new MCS range of modular personal computers in the UK – processor, main memory, and disk modules can all be added by the user, allowing for instant re-configurations. And Tandon has switched sides in the Unix marketplace by announcing an agreement with Interactive Systems Corp to incorporate Interactive’s Unix System V.3.2 and later V.4 – software into its product lines. Tandon will also bundle Interactive’s Architech Series modular suite of software components, with its high-end machines, offering VP/ix MS-DOS under Unix, Norton Utilities for System V and NetWare, and the DataPac II disk is supported. Tandon previously offered Santa Cruz Operation Inc Unix and Xenix on its personal computers.
Quadrate expands boundries of X Window
Quadrate Ltd, Winchester, Hampshire is a trading division of Oilfield Systems Ltd, the geological workstation specialist. Quadrate offers an enhanced version of X Server w
hich enables a workstation user to take advantage of several different screens – all treated as a single virtual screen. A user in a window is able to move straight across the window borders onto the next screen. It is a facility useful for CAD/CAM users, who might, for instance, need to zoom in for detailed changes but need to view the wider picture at the same time. Fully X-compatible, it will work with any X application. It also exploits Sun’s GX graphics accelerator.
Star prepares for European launch
Stirling, Virginia-based Star Technologies Inc is using the Sun show to introduce its 910/VP Sparc computer server into Europe. The machines, launched as long ago as last July in the US, have already been shipped to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratories and to the University of Western Australia. For its European move, Star has set up a distributor in France, and hired Tom Hillman as managing director of international operations. Hillman was previously head of worldwide distribution for Solbourne Computer Inc. The Star machine can reportedly achieve a performance of up to 160 MFLOPS peak. Star has been carrying out joint marketing of its products with Sun itself.
Crab takes a sideways approach to X
A new company, Crab Advanced Technology Ltd of Reading, Berkshire, was set up in April to develop a new type of product that is a cross between a workstation and an X-terminal, according to company spokesman Mark Goulding. That product, which Goulding hints builds on the cross-strengths of workstations, communications and functional processing, will not be shown at this show, but will be launched on pre-customer release by the end of this year or early next. In the meantime, Crab will be showing Samsung X-terminals, using the Am29000 RISC on its stand. Crab is funded from Italy, and is currently setting up sales channels around Europe.
