DEC's Rdb announces 302.68 tpsA at $6643/tpsA on ALPHA

DB Expo Booth #817 DIGITAL EXTENDS ALPHA AXP DATABASE PRICE/PERFORMANCE LEAD, ENHANCES ACCESSWORKS SERVERS ...DEC Rdb is first relational database to break through $7,000/tpsA and 300 tpsA barriers on a uniprocessor...Company enhances ACCESSWORKS client/server integrated data access servers... SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- May 5, 1993 -- Digital Equipment Corporation today added to the Alpha AXP platform's credentials as the database server of choice for computer downsizing by announcing breakthrough midrange price/performance and performance results on the TPC-A Benchmark. At $6,643/tpsA, the new DEC Rdb Version 6.0 running on a DEC 7000 Model 610 is the first relational database to deliver production-quality database performance on a midrange server at under $7,000/TPS. At 302.68 tpsA, it offers the best performance in its class -- over 64% faster than HP's best tpsA uniprocessor offering. The company also delivered EDA/SQL enhancements for the ACCESSWORKS client/server integrated data access server family, and new versions of the RdbAccess product family. Further, the company outlined capabilities -- including enhanced support for very large databases (VLDB) and multivendor database integration -- that it will roll out over the next several months as part of its ongoing delivery of the Information Network data delivery strategy. "The evidence is mounting that the Alpha AXP server is the server of choice for customers planning computer downsizing," stated Sharon Keillor, vice president of software business and product marketing management at Digital. "On April 6th Alpha AXP delivered the world's fastest sort -- establishing that AXP systems outperform mainframes even in areas where customers felt they had no choice but a mainframe. On the same day we also delivered industry-leading uniprocessor performance on a DEC 10000 running the ORACLE7 database. Today's announcement not only confirms AXP's outstanding performance and client/server integrated data access capabilities, it firmly ranks DEC Rdb on Alpha AXP as the most cost-effective transaction processing platform in the industry." NEW VERSIONS OF DEC RDB FEATURE ENHANCED MULTIMEDIA AND VERY LARGE DATABASE SUPPORT Announced today are new features for DEC Rdb Version 5.1 and details of DEC Rdb Version 6.0. DEC Rdb Version 5.1 delivers enhanced SQL multimedia support, including performance improvements to support full-motion video. This capability gives an enterprise the opportunity to explore new ways of providing products and services to their customers from within the proven DEC Rdb environment. DEC Rdb Version 5.1 also provides ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) support, thus making it easy for customers running ODBC-compliant applications to access data in a DEC Rdb database. DEC Rdb also takes full advantage of the recently announced mixed cluster environment of both OpenVMS for AXP and OpenVMS for VAX systems. Additionally, DEC Rdb Version 5.1 is fully compatible with the Multivendor Integration Architecture (MIA) user specification sponsored by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, including internationalization support that makes it easy to tailor applications for use worldwide. DEC Rdb Version 5.1 ships in August, with prices ranging from $1,130 to $349,800. In addition to the outstanding price/performance and sheer throughput demonstrated by the TPC-A benchmark, the next major release of DEC Rdb, Version 6.0, will provide enhanced on-line back-up and new multithreaded restore capabilities that make it practical for an enterprise to maintain very large databases. DEC Rdb Version 6.0 will ship in December 1993, with prices ranging from $1,130 to $349,800. ACCESSWORKS ADDS ACCESS TO MORE THAN 50 DATA SOURCES The ACCESSWORKS family of client/server integrated data servers provides users of desktop applications easy, transparent, and secure access to corporate databases. New ACCESSWORKS products and enhancements announced today provide users with more choices and capabilities than ever before. The new ACCESSWORKS/EDA option and ACCESSWORKS/EDA family of servers (ACCESSWORKS/EDA V1.0) will enable end-users to access more than 50 relational and non-relational data sources from their desktops -- more than eight times the number that they could previously access. Featured in the ACCESSWORKS/EDA V1.0 server is the EDA store option, enabling the user to choose one of four databases -- DEC Rdb, ORACLE, SYBASE and Ingres -- to store data. That capability allows the user to use any desktop application the database supports. Also announced today is ACCESSWORKS V2.0, which enhances the basic capabilities of the initial, or "classic" ACCESSWORKS (V1.1) solutions. ACCESSWORKS products introduced today are - ACCESSWORKS Version 2.0. New features in the "classic" server configuration include write access to DB2 and Oracle databases, as well as support for Microsoft's ODBC client driver, which enables ACCESSWORKS to support many additional desktop applications. ACCESSWORKS Version 2.0 will ship in July, with prices starting at $9,016. (Please see the ACCESSWORKS fact sheet for more information.) Customers who prefer to purchase components rather than the full ACCESSWORKS solution can gain write access to DB2 and ORACLE databases from PCs and Rdb databases with new versions of the standalone products DEC RdbAccess for DB2 and DEC RdbAccess to Oracle products. Available in June, prices for Version 2.0 of these products start at $1,408 and $1,390, respectively. - ACCESSWORKS/EDA Option. The EDA Option is available as an add-on to existing classic ACCESSWORKS solutions. It adds read access to all of the EDA-supported databases. Customers choose this solution when they need the leadership capabilities provided by the classic ACCESSWORKS solution and also need to be able to read data stored in EDA-supported databases, typically for decision support applications. ACCESSWORKS/EDA Option will ship in July; prices for the add-on option start at $13,379. - ACCESSWORKS/EDA Version 1.0. This new set of ACCESSWORKS solutions is for customers who need read access to the many databases supported by EDA/SQL from multiple desktop devices, typically for users working with decision support applications. ACCESSWORKS/EDA also provides the EDA Store feature, which enables users to choose one of four databases to use to store their data: Rdb, ORACLE, SYBASE, and Ingres. ACCESSWORKS/EDA Version 1.0 products will ship in July in three configurations -- ACCESSWORKS/EDA 4100, ACCESSWORKS/EDA 4600 and ACCESSWORKS/EDA 7610 -- ranging in price from $69,104 to $261,305. "End-users now have greater flexibility to do their jobs and increase their overall productivity with more access to key business information," said Digital's Keillor. "With the introduction of ACCESSWORKS/EDA, customers now are