PRESS: Expansion of Servers for Parallel Processing DBs

INFORMIX TO EXPAND AVAILABILITY OF PARALLEL PROCESSING DATABASE SERVER TO ELEVEN SMP HARDWARE PLATFORMS Breakthrough PDQ Technology Provides Dramatic Performance Improvements and Drives New Business Decision Applications Support for Cluster and MPP Systems Slated for Mid-1995 MENLO PARK, Calif., (June 21, 1994) -- Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:IFMX), the leading provider of parallel processing database technology, today announced expanded availability of INFORMIX(R)-OnLine Dynamic Server(TM) 7.0 to 11 leading symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) hardware platforms beginning in September of this year. OnLine Dynamic Server 7.0 will be available on SMP platforms from AT&T Global Information Solutions (formerly NCR); Data General, Inc.; Digital Equipment Corp.; Hewlett-Packard Co.; IBM; Motorola, Inc.; Pyramid Technology Corp.; Siemens/Nixdorf Informationsysteme (SNI); Sun Microsystems, Inc.; and Unisys by Q4, 1994. OnLine Dynamic Server 7.0 has been available on Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.'s SMP platform since February, 1994. Informix plans to support the widest range of high-performance hardware alternatives for users' parallel processing requirements. OnLine Dynamic Server 7.0 is based on Informix's next-generation multithreaded, parallel processing database architecture, Dynamic Scalable Architecture(TM) (DSA). DSA includes Parallel Data Query (PDQ), a first-of-its-kind parallel processing technology for open systems that breaks the scalability barriers of previous UNIX(R) database architectures unable to handle the data volume loads, system administration needs, and performance restraints of enterprise-wide online transaction processing (OLTP), batch and decision support (DSS) applications. Jointly developed by Informix and Sequent, OnLine Dynamic Server with PDQ provides tens to hundreds times performance gains over conventional databases because it breaks long-running database processing tasks into subtasks and then processes those tasks in parallel. This approach maximizes the power of each central processing unit (CPU) in a multiprocessor hardware system. In addition to providing new SMP platform support, Informix is well underway in developing its DSA implementation for clusters and massively parallel processing (MPP) systems. Informix will be demonstrating this version, called INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server 8.0, in Q4 of this year. OnLine Dynamic Server 8.0 is now scheduled for general availability by mid-1995. "Parallelism will become the most important breakthrough in database technology since the hierarchical world discovered the relational model," said Tim Shetler, vice president, product management, Informix. "The performance increases and time savings are so significant, that DSA will help forge a whole new class of applications -- ones that merge the strengths of decision support and transaction processing to reengineer new ways for companies to respond to customer opportunities and market conditions." SMP Provides Superior Performance, Excellent Scalability Informix is focusing its parallel processing database technology initially on the SMP market because SMP provides extremely cost-effective mainframe-caliber performance and an administrative infrastructure that allows easy migration from a uniprocessor system environment. In addition, SMP offers a familiar programming environment so users can write applications as if they were writing for a uniprocessor system. "SMP systems are the hottest market opportunity for parallel processing technology in the near term because, unlike massively parallel systems, they are pervasive, thereby giving users a multitude of excellent vendor choices," said Shetler. "DSA's ability to handle high volumes of data and user queries will enable end users to perform ad hoc decision support queries in seconds. In the mainframe world, such queries would have been reserved for corporate executives and the queries themselves could take many minutes or even hours to complete." PDQ Enables Dramatic Performance Improvements, Data Partitioning In February, 1994, OnLine Dynamic Server 7.0 with PDQ became the industry's first open systems database server to offer customers the ability to obtain maximum performance and utilization of multiprocessor hardware by dividing large database queries into multiple parallel tasks. PDQ facilitates performance improvements in the tens to hundreds over serial database technology, thereby greatly improving the performance of complex data queries that form the basis of many critical database applications. With PDQ, the performance speed up is directly related to the number of CPUs on the server. PDQ handles all database functions that require handling and processing mass amounts of data -- batch, decision support, backup/restore, load/unload, index builds, table reorganizations, mass inserts, deletes, and updates -- as tasks that can be processed in parallel. PDQ also incorporates data partitioning, a key component to efficient parallelism and effective management of large databases. Partitioning allows the database administrator to segment data from a massive pool into a group of smaller, more manageable pieces. Data partitioning is transparent to users and applications, and enables the database to: -Perform parallel I/O with maximum efficiency -Be administered at the partition level (e.g., backup, restore recovery, bulk load/unload, alter table, reorganize table, etc.) in parallel, thereby enabling the database administrator to control the amount of time these operations take to complete -Skip unavailable partitions to maintain high availability -Skip uninvolved partitions to increase performance "Informix developed what they call 'core internal parallelism' in DSA, which is different than other types of add-on parallel database capabilities we've seen," said Michael Bloomberg, founder, Bloomberg Financial Markets. "Since the parallel processing features are internal rather than external, we're expecting impressive performance gains. It's clear that Informix thought this technology through." Bloomberg Financial markets, the world's leading provider of securities information and analytics is using OnLine Dynamic Server to provide real-time market information -- on more than 40,000 terminals -- to traders, brokers, bankers, money managers, and other financial decision makers worldwide. DSA Enables Decision Support Applications Such as Data Warehousing According to a recent report from the Aberdeen Group, a high technology industry consulting firm, end users and re-engineered line-of-business organizations are adopting a new model of decision-making that involves accessing decision-support data and optionally "posting" decisions in real time via OLTP. The improved performance, increased data-processing robustness, and lower cost configuration flexibility of parallel processing databases like OnLine Dynamic Server, make them a strong choice for IS department's enterprise-scale, DSS needs, according to the Aberdeen Group. One such DSS application being fueled by parallel processing databases is data warehousing. A data warehouse solution stores a company's@@NL@