Uniface International BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands – which recently got top marks for its Uniface fourth generation applications development environment in a report on fourth generation software carried out by Butler Boor Ltd, Hull, has released version 5 of its technology, which includes a PolyServer and Universal Presentation Interface. Uniface enables the use of any relational database, file management system and software engineering tool in any combination. The PolyServer brings client-server functionality to it, allowing simultaneous access to databases running on multiple systems across a range of networks. The Universal Presentation Interface enables users to define applications which can run under character or graphical-based user interfaces without recoding. Version 5 includes support for Presentation Manager, and Motif, Open Look, DECwindows and X Window will follow, with at least one – most likely Motif – up by the end of the year. Uniface also comes with an integrated text retrieval system as standard. First versions will be for VMS and OS/2, with copies for the various flavours of Unix following – shipments are due to begin in May. Prices have not yet been fixed, but will be around 60% of what Oracle charges for its database kernel – currently UKP4,500 on a four-user Unix system – or 30% on client-server architecture, according to president Bodo Douque. There are currently around 500 copies installed worldwide – 120 of them in the UK – but on the back of all the rave reviews it has been getting over the few months Douque predicts this figure will rise to 2,000 by the end of this year and to 5,000 by the end of next year. By the time Version 5 comes to market it will be integrated with Sybase – in Europe Uniface is bundled in with Sybase as FastBuild, and Sybase has marketed Uniface in the US under an OEM agreement for the past four years. Uniface’s other OEM customer is Delft Technologies. Douque says the firm is also working with a handful of developers who will be offering software based on Uniface, in much the same way that Progress Software Corp’s fourth generation language is used as the basis of other applications. Managing director of Uniface UK is Ed Humphrey – a founder of Progress – who replaces Richard Branch. Humphrey’s aim is to UK turnover to UKP2m by this time next year. Uniface has UK offices in Maidenhead and a US operation in Madison, New Jersey, in addition to its Amsterdam headquarters, and will be opening a further US office in the US over the next couple of months. The company is owned 20% by its employees, 40% by management and 40% by a group of venture capitalists. A staff of 68 is expected to rise to 151 by the end of the year. Uniface distributors include GEI GmbH of West Germany; Infi Gestion SA in France; Labinf SpA, Italy; Multibase Pty Ltd, Australia; Sidata GmbH, Switzerland; the Norwegian company Skrivervik Data AS, and TaKT in Japan.
