Sterling Software’s Answer Systems division in Canoga Park, California has announced that its Answer DB micro-to-mainframe software link for the Personal Computer, will now support DB2, IBM’s relational data base management system, making it the second in its family of software tools that Answer Systems has enhanced with DB2 support. The first product, MARK IV, a mainframe application development tool, is now being delivered to customers. The California company reckons that it is the first vendor to provide software to access IBM’s two database products – DB2 for relational databases and IMS for hierarchical databases – simultaneously. DB2 has been gaining increasing popularity since IBM began shipping 18 months ago. Answer/DB supporting DB2 will be available in six weeks and prices typically range from a base of $45,000 to $200,000, depending on the size and complexity of the system. Last year IBM agreed joint marketing of Answer/DB for its IMS users.
