SelectStar announces support for Sybase IQ; Combination offers high speed Relational OLAP for data warehouses

Business Wire, March 26, 1996

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 1996--SelectStar Inc., a pioneer of on-line analytical processing for relational databases (Relational OLAP), today announced support for the new Sybase IQ(TM) data warehouse server.

SelectStar's products include StarTrieve(TM), a straightforward Relational OLAP tool for mainstream business users. Sybase IQ is a new standalone server that is optimized for flexible, interactive analysis and ad-hoc queries. It uses a high-performance bitmapped indexing scheme and data access technology to speed ad-hoc, read-only access to Sybase(R) databases. Users of StarTrieve who take advantage of Sybase IQ can implement high performance environments for performing ad hoc analyses of large data warehouses.

In the past, most large-scale implementations of Relational OLAP have relied upon specialized, highly de-normalized schemas and the use of proprietary analysis servers to achieve acceptable query performance. Solutions like these are complex to design, build and maintain. According to SelectStar president David Grubman, "Sybase IQ makes it a lot simpler to implement Relational OLAP, and also provides outstanding interactive performance. It is no longer necessary to create multiple levels of summary data in a data warehouse or to use third-party analysis engines to achieve rapid query response times."

Sybase vice president of server products Bruce Armstrong added, "StarTrieve's `skinny client' approach relies on the relational database server for query acceleration. Sybase IQ provides the horsepower that StarTrieve users need to analyze large data warehouses. With Sybase IQ and StarTrieve, query results are seen in seconds -- compared to the minutes or even hours that it takes with standard relational databases."

SelectStar Inc., founded in 1991, designs, develops and markets decision support software that significantly improves its customers' ability to understand and act upon data. SelectStar's products deliver the benefits of on-line analytical processing on relational servers through easy-to-use yet powerful analytical tools.

SelectStar is a privately held corporation with a growing portfolio of corporate and government clients. Representative StarTrieve user sites include American International Group (AIG), Ketchum Communications, Loral, Merck, Philip Morris, Seagram's, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. SelectStar is also a long-standing member of the Sybase Open Solutions Partner program, as well as a charter member of the Sybase Warehouse Works program.

Sybase Inc. is a worldwide leader in client/server software. Sybase and its Powersoft division are focused on four major market segments: on-line transaction processing, data warehousing, mass deployment and electronic commerce. Sybase's software products -- database, middleware and tools -- provide customers with desktop-to-enterprise solutions. The company's mission is to provide its customers with an open, adaptable information systems architecture that enables them to develop and deliver complete information systems solutions to facilitate rapid business change. Headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., Sybase is the sixth largest independent software company in the world. The company's Internet addresses are www.sybase.com and www.powersoft.com.

StarTrieve is available for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh; a single user StarTrieve license is $595. For more information, contact SelectStar Inc., 15 Penn Plaza, OF2, New York, New York 10001. Telephone: 800/326-5516. Electronic mail: info@selectstar.com. SelectStar may be found on the world-wide web at http://www.selectstar.com/.>Trademark Information:

SelectStar, StarTrieve, and StarTrieve Administrator are trademarks of SelectStar Inc.

Sybase, Sybase IQ, and Sybase Warehouse WORKS are trademarks of Sybase Inc.

CONTACT: GHB Communications

Mark Bruce

203/321-1242

Internet: 76166.3443@compuserve.com