Visual Numerics unveils its network-centric computing strategy

Business Wire, July 20, 1998

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 1998--Visual Numerics, Inc., an industry-leading developer of computational, visualization and Internet software solutions, announces the achievement of significant advances in the technology available for collaborative technical computing.

Since 1970, Visual Numerics has delivered the best mathematical, statistical and visual data analysis technologies.

Today enterprises are moving toward scalable desktop and network-centric software environments. Our customers have found that Web technology, combined with networked computers is remarkably powerful and delivers remote working, collaborative computing and platform neutrality. Visual Numerics' network-centric strategy, which is based upon open standards and architectures such as Java(TM), JavaBeans(TM) and CORBA, has led to the creation of development tools which enable our customers to create more flexible solutions than were ever before possible.

Our customers enjoy collaborative technical computing and platform neutral deployment when they Web-enable existing applications. Our strategy helps our customers transition from the desktop to a cost-effective, network-centric model. New development can take advantage of a Web-architected approach, resulting in greater flexibility and reduced deployment costs.

"Visual Numerics is the only visualization software developer with a clearly defined vision for collaborative technical computing," said Ted Charter, executive vice president of North American Operations. "The company continues to make substantial investments in both the PV-WAVE(R) and IMSL(R) product lines to help our customers transition to the network-centric model," he continued. JWAVE(TM) is the first generation of network-centric visual data analysis tools.

JWAVE builds on PV-WAVE to deliver advanced client/server mathematics, statistics and visualization through an extensive set of JavaBeans, which allows users to develop better applications faster. JWAVE enables our customers to share, collaborate and deploy 100% Pure Java(TM) visual data analysis applications over the Web.

Customers benefit from every product enhancement. Recently, PV-WAVE 6.21 was fully internationalized on all platforms and is more powerful than ever before. JWAVE customers will immediately enjoy these added features. The IMSL Numerical Libraries continue to be enhanced with key new features such as new algorithms, scalable parallelization, optimized scheduling and heterogeneous network support.

The company continually monitors satisfaction among its customer base. Frank Hall, research and development supervisor of Reed Tool, said, "In my opinion, PV-WAVE is the most powerful data analysis software available today." He continued, "The other packages we evaluated didn't offer the utilities of PV-WAVE." Alan Dunwell, another PV-WAVE customer, said, "In a world of bad technical support, I have become spoiled by your company's excellent technical support."

To learn more about Visual Numerics' network-centric strategy, read the white paper Network-Centric Strategy for Numerics and Visualization -- Envisioning the Best Technologies for Scalable Network-Centric Software Environments. You can obtain a copy through our Web site at www.vni.com.

Visual Numerics is a privately held company with headquarters in Houston, Texas, and offices in Colorado, France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Korea and the United Kingdom, in addition to an extensive worldwide distributor network. Founded in 1970 as IMSL, Inc., Visual Numerics was formed in 1992 as a result of the merger between Houston-based IMSL and Boulder, Colorado-based Precision Visuals. Visual Numerics can be reached at 800-364-8880 and on the Web at www.vni.com.

   CONTACT:  Visual Numerics Inc., Boulder
              Margaret Journey, 303/245-5424
              margaret@boulder.vni.com
              www.vni.com