AT&T has come up with an answer to IBM’s Systems Applications Architecture to provide developers with applications for its 3B supermicros and Olivetti personal computers with a common development interface and set of tools – and has made Informix Software Inc’s Informix SQL-based relational database a core product within the new Application Operating Environment. AOE differs from SAA in that it is tied to a specific set of products – Unix System V.3, needless to say, plus MS-DOS and OS/2, MS-DOS as a guest under Unix; X Window; common networking and communications software; and standard language implementations. There will also be a new SQL-based transaction processing system called Tuxedo, to be available for the entire 3B family, but SOA covers the 80286-based PC6300 Plus and 80386-based WorkGroup 6386 machines from Olivetti, and the 68010-based Unix PC as well as the WE32000-based 3B family. Unix System V.3 is promised for the 6386 in November. Computer Systems News reports that AT&T and Microsoft have also agreed to build compatibility between OS/2 and Unix networking utilities, with common user interface and network services for both Unix and OS/2 servers. The pact between AT&T and Informix Software Inc, Menlo Park, California is extremely comprehensive, covering the database itself; the Informix-4GL applications generator; Informix Turbo fault-tolerant database server; ESQL/C and Cobol for interfacing C and Cobol programs to SQL commands; the C-ISAM library of C functions for indexed file manipulation; and Informix 3.3 non-SQL relational data base. Networking standards within SOA include X25, Ethernet, TCP/IP,Starlan Network OSI and AT&T Mail.