TimesTen Performance Software Inc, the Mountain View, California-based main memory database company, has released beta versions of its 3.0 database system, the first to be optimized for 64-bit performance. TimesTen Version 3.0 also includes data replication support for high availability. The 64-bit version increases the previous 2Gb addressable space limit of 32-bit systems, a limit which can be critical for the kind of real-time data speed database applications the product is aimed at. The new version is being tested on Sun Microsystems Inc and Hewlett Packard Co 64-bit Unix systems. A 32-bit version is also available, and runs on HP, Sun and Windows NT systems. Applications re-engineered to use memory as the primary data resource can be streamlined to reduce unnecessary processing overhead, claims TimesTen. It says its products use one tenth the number of instructions as conventional relational databases and are therefore ten times faster – hence the name. Since the company began selling its main memory database products in January, it has won orders from telecommunications companies, supply chain management vendors and internet companies. Telcos are typically using the product for cellular telephone services and routing lookups – around half a dozen database lookups must be carried out in real-time once a call is made. HP – the company from which TimesTen was originally spun-off (CI No 3,340) is said to be actively involved in upgrading network equipment providers with the new version. ERP software vendors, which all have some form of home-grown main memory databases behind their products, are another target. For production planning, those firms need to provide a point-in-time snapshot of inventory and manufacturing in hand. Internet companies are the third focus for TimesTen, with Pointcast Inc as its first customer, and Netscape Communications Corp a beta site for the new version. Other areas include risk analysis applications for Wall Street, and cacheing systems for internal company extranets. TimesTen, which has 40 staff, won a second round of funding last April, and now says it has enough money to see it through into next year. Prices for the new version are around $20,000 for the 128Mb version, $80,000 for a 1Gb version.
