Unisys object database system targets transaction-intensive applications in telecommunications market

Business Wire, Nov 28, 1995

BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 1995--Unisys Corporation today announced that it has developed the first object database management system designed to support transaction-intensive applications.

Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) will use the advanced object database -- OSMOS -- as the foundation of an application it will market throughout the U.S.

Unisys is also actively recruiting partners to deploy this object database technology in large-scale applications on UNIX and other industry standard platforms.

"The object database industry is clearly still emerging, but there is a strong need for the capabilities that the OSMOS object database provides -- support for complex data structures, high capacity, high throughput, scalability and database resiliency -- among many of our telecommunications customers," said Mike Dowers, OSMOS director of business development. "Unisys believes that this technology represents significant potential for bringing object-oriented data management into mainstream business use."

Bellcore has used the Unisys object database server to develop a powerful geographical reference information system, called the LocateIt System, which allows users to verify correct addresses for homes or businesses anywhere in the U.S.

Use of the system can help significantly reduce mailings and service calls to incorrect addresses, a problem that costs U.S. business millions of dollars each year.

Bellcore's OSMOS-based LocateIt System, developed to help local telephone companies verify address information for network entities and to establish distance-based prices for their services, can also be useful to companies in other industries, for such uses as verifying addresses in mailing lists, computing shipping charges between two points or confirming real estate tax jurisdictions.

The LocateIt System uses OSMOS on a UNIX server to manage a database of over 10 gigabytes (11 billion characters) of geographic and geopolitical information.

"OSMOS is a true, transaction-intensive object database," said Bill Fox, Executive Director of Language Standards at Bellcore. "Unlike many other object database systems, which are built to handle small numbers of large objects and are therefore suited for computer-aided design (CAD) applications, Unisys has designed an object database that can handle large numbers of small objects typically involved in transaction environments. The LocateIt System is an example of such an application, one that includes a large database with complex data structures."

OSMOS supports all key features of the object paradigm

OSMOS is truly object-oriented database management system, supporting all key features of the object paradigm, including the storage of objects as the basic unit of information, object definition through the use of abstract data types and classes, encapsulation of structural and behavioral semantics via properties and operations, and inheritance, overriding and polymorphism.

OSMOS also incorporates many of the semantic modeling concepts Unisys pioneered with its mainframe-based Semantic Information Manager (SIM) in 1987.

Object databases can handle more flexible data structures than relational databases, and can do it with database designs that more closely model what users would consider the real world than the highly normalized databases of relational systems.

"Implementing an application such as the LocateIt System using a relational database would have been much more difficult," commented Bill Fox of Bellcore.

The OSMOS object database server supports any off-the-shelf C compiler, without the use of special language extensions or pre- processors. The object data manipulation language is based on the SQL3 data model.

The database also supports the X/Open Distributed Transaction Processing (DTP) reference model for distributed interoperability with other compliant object and non- object database systems.

Pricing and availability

OSMOS is available immediately. The end-user price for a system supporting up to 32 users is $42,500.

The OSMOS business strategy is to be an industry leader in object relational database technology by recruiting key industry leaders, independent software vendors and third parties who will embed OSMOS technology within an application, develop OSMOS tool sets or resell OSMOS to end users.

Bellcore

Bellcore, headquartered in Morristown, N.J., is a leading provider of communications software and consulting services based on world class research. Bellcore creates the business solutions that make information technology work for telecommunications carriers, businesses and governments worldwide. -0- Unisys is a registered trademark of Unisys Corporation. LocateIt is a trademark of Bellcore. All other brands and products referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Unisys Corp.

Steve Holzman, 215/986-5098

Internet: holzmans@po7.bb.unisys.com