Taking advantage of the increasing take-up of Unix in the US and Europe, Ricoh Co next year plans to begin export of its own software that runs under Unix, starting with G-Base, a relational database that is claimed to allow data to be retrieved at higher speed as the relationships between the tables do not have to be described. It will be accompanied by a three dimensional computer-aided design package called Designbase, claimed to draw curved objects at a processing speed 10 to 100 times faster than other CAD software. A related file package, G-ISAM, will also be offered. Ricoh plans to market the software in partnership with local software houses. In the US, Ricoh Corp will establish a software development and support team and start to build a distribution network.
