Six-year-old object-relational database company UniSQL Inc of Austin, Texas, will release a Web-based environment for Intranets by the year-end and claims they will provide access to all data in all formats across the network from a single server using its UniSQL/X database and tools. It will be more than a HyperText Mark-up Language forms engine, the company claims. The base technology is a proprietary system developed by its Japanese NTT Data Communications System Corp backer to run on the UniSQL database and sold only in Japan. UniSQL will add its own technologies and produce the software for sale in the US and elsewhere. Far from being squeezed by those relational vendors that are developing their own object strategies or other players in the object-relational linking space, UniSQL claims the marketplace is now just about intersecting its technology and believes its time has come. The 85-person, privately-held concern will be up to 100 staff by next month and is currently working through a plan to make an initial public offering of shares. The company, which claims 600 users, excluding those from its OEM customers such as Cincom Systems Inc and NTT Data sponsor, says it is in profit and is currently sitting on a four-year, $10m license it has sold to an unnamed South Korean company. Meantime, UniSQL this week unveils version 3.5 of its database for use with the SQL3 syntax which supports the definition and management of complex objects, the adoption of which, by ANSI and the International Standards Organisation, has been shepherded by UniSQL. Version 3.5 also includes improved scaling and support for larger database sizes. It supports C++, Smalltalk, C, Visual C++ and VisualWorks/SmallTalk application programming interfaces. Prices go from $12,000 for a four- user Unix license and from $10,800 under Windows NT.
