JavaStation-compatibles & software debut one week after Sun's roll-out
San Francisco — Network computer evangelist and Oracle president and CEO Larry Ellison demonstrated some prototype NC devices at OpenWorld ’96 Conference here in early November, including versions based on Advanced RISC Machines(ARM) and Intel microprocessors.
Ellison slipped a smart card into an NC powered by a 133-MHz Pentium processor with the Netscape Navigator browser and an SVGA monitor displaying a customized “desktop” screen or personal page with links to news, weather and other sites.
“We’re working with Intel on an NC,” Ellison said. “This is an Intel NC.”
An Oracle spokeswoman clarified the point after Ellison’s presentation, saying that Oracle is porting NC technology to Intel’s Pentium chip. Earlier in the day, an Intel spokeswoman said Intel is not making any NC announcements. A week ago, Intel joined Microsoft Corp. in announcing plans to develop NetPCs, in what is seen as a counter to Oracle’s NC strategy.
An Intel version of the NC will be finished by the end of the year and available in the first quarter of 1997, Ellison said. An NC server will be available by the end of the year, and ARM-based devices are already shipping, he said.
Despite alluding to Intel as a partner, Ellison took repeated jabs at Intel and Microsoft for resisting what he called a paradigm shift to lower-cost, less complex network-centric appliances.
“We will never move to the information age if we have to rely on the PC to get us there,” he said. “People can’t afford them and don’t understand how to use them.”
NCs won’t replace PCs, but will be sold in “much greater volume,” Ellison said. “The NC is a communication and information access device, not a computation device.”
Office NCs will range between 00 and 00, and home NCs will cost nothing for the hardware, but users will pay between 0 and 0 for network use, according to Ellison. While Oracle is developing software for the appliances and servers, Apple Computer Inc. and WebTV Networks Inc. are developing devices for offices and schools, and IBM and Sun Microsystems are working on models for corporate use, he added.
One attendee was skeptical of Ellison’s end-user cost forecast.
“There’s all kinds of services behind it that you’re going to have to purchase,” said Larry Binder, a database administrator at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Michigan. “What other costs are there to get the system up and running?”
Another audience member was impressed with Ellison’s demonstration of streaming video on several NC devices. “We do a lot of videoconferencing between sites, and they could use it there,” said Brent McKean, a systems analyst at Shell Oil Co. in Houston. “But if I had a choice between a 00 NC and a ,000 PC, I’d buy the PC because I like the storage and I like the disk space.”
In his keynote address, Ellison predicted that the killer application for NCs will be “multimedia HTML e-mail.” To illustrate his point, he demonstrated a 200-MHz ARM-based NC decompressing MPEG images in real time; an ARM-based digital NC set-top box with remote control streaming video from an Oracle Universal Server to a Web browser over a TCP/IP network; a Pentium-based set-top box showing streamed video over a 28.8K-bit-per-second modem; and streamed video over an ISDN (integrated services digital network) line.
Ellison also demonstrated an ARM-based NC prototype with an RCA TV monitor; another TV with NC software built in using a keyboard; a telephone with integrated NC; and a Pentium-based PC running NC software and Netscape Navigator.
TV-type NCs with SVGA monitors will cost between 00 and 00, he said. “When you get the hardware price under 00, in about two years, [the NC] will be built into every high-end TV.’
As for telephones: “This appliance costs less than a corporate telephone,” he said, adding that each of Oracle’s internal phones costs 00 each.
A Java-powered HatTrick
On the software side, Oracle revealed a Java-based suite of office applications for network computers which the company says will rival Microsoft Corp.’s Office.
HatTrick features a Java-based word-processor, spreadsheet and graphics software program which can be downloaded over a network. HatTrick will be included in Oracle’s InterOffice 4.1 groupware suite. The word processor and presentation software will ship in the first quarter of 1997 and the spreadsheet will ship in the second quarter of 1997. Pricing has not yet been announced.
Since HatTrick is written entirely in Java and publishes information in HTML, the applications can be launched and viewed with any Web browser, according to Oracle. HatTrick will function as “cartridges,” or groups of software components, which will reside on the application server.
The HatTrick suite of applets require 2 megabytes of memory and no disk space on the desktop machine. Oracle officials point out that Microsoft Office, which requires 12 megabytes of memory and 89 megabytes of disk space to run applications with “the same basic level of functionality,” is too complicated and difficult to use.
The majority of computer users spend most of their time using a word processor, sending e-mail, creating presentation graphics and developing spreadsheets and have no need for a “bulky front office product suite”, said Joe Duncan, senior vice president of Oracle’s Object, Internet and Groupware Tools division.
The company used its annual user conference to announce a bevy of new or improved software:
- Developer/2000
Oracle unveiled a new product called Developer/2000 for the Web. It will allow software developers to re-deploy existing Developer/2000 applications on intranets and the Internet without having to rewrite code. Developer/2000 for the Web will separate presentation, application and database access logic and run them as Java applets
Oracle hopes the new Web version of the product will allow developers to make the estimated 5 million Developer/2000 client/server applications in use today available for use with NCs, officials said. In addition, Oracle is urging developers to create future applications based on the Web environment in order to shift the focus of client/server computing to browser/server computing.
- WebServer 2.1
Oracle also announced its WebServer 2.1, which provides a common platform for users to create and deploy Web applications on Microsoft, Netscape and Oracle servers. The server is built on Oracle’s Web Request Broker technology, a part of Oracle’s Network Computing Architecture, allowing developers to create interoperable cartridges that link the client, the database and HTTP servers from Oracle, Microsoft and Netscape across a network.
WebServer 2.1 for Sun Solaris is available for download today at http://www.oracle.com, with an NT version due out by the end of the year. Pricing has not yet been announced.
- Payment Server
In the electronic commerce realm, Oracle released a Java-based commerce server for secure payment over the Internet. The Payment Server will work in conjunction with Oracle’s Project Apollo merchant server to enable users to set up “virtual store-fronts” on the Web and to accept credit card payments within a secure environment, according to the company.
Payment Server will support credit card, electronic checks and digital cash payments from CyberCash, FirstData and VeriFone. Like Apollo, Payment Server is based on the Network Computing Architecture which aims to allow PCs and NCs to interoperate using a set of network computing applications.
The Apollo merchant server functions as a cartridge which plugs into the Oracle Web Request Broker and interoperates with Oracle Universal Server, according to Oracle. Apollo will be available in beta by the end of the year, with Payment Server to follow in beta in the second quarter of 1997.
Five vendors jumped on the Oracle NC bandwagon today by announcing their intention to develop cartridges, or software components, based on the Network Computing Architecture. BlueStone Inc., Gradient Technologies Inc., HAHT Software, SAQQARA Systems and SourceCraft Inc. all announced that they will build cartridges which plug into the architecture.
- Personal Oracle Lite 2.3
Oracle also announced today that its local version of its Oracle database, Personal Oracle Lite 2.3, will ship with two-way replication capabilities. This bidirectional data replication feature will allow the “thin database” to integrate with corporate workgroup and enterprise databases and will let mobile users access central information more easily, according to Oracle. The compact database, which takes up 1 megabyte of RAM and 5 megabytes of hard disk space, is currently available for 95 a person.
Oracle also announced that it will Web-enable all 30 of the modules in its client/server applications suite. While Oracle has made some parts of its client/server application suite Web-ready in the past year, such as its human resources application, this is the first time the company has announced that the entire suite will be “Webified.” Financials, manufacturing, supply chain management, payroll modules will be modified so that users can access them using any Java-enabled browser, according to Oracle. The Web-enable applications are expected to be available in the second quarter of 1997.
- Power Objects 2.0
The company also said that its Power Objects 2.0 visual development tool for BASIC developers is now available. Some of the new features include integration with Oracle Personal Lite, intranet development tools and wider database support and integration through Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). Power Objects 2.0 will cost 95 for the professional edition and ,495 for the client/server edition. Current Power Objects 1.0 users can upgrade for 95 and 95 respectively.
Oracle also introduced new products in the data mart/data warehouse space, including a new Relational OnLine Analyticial Processing Tool (ROLAP) option for Oracle 7 and a new version of its query and reporting tool, Discover 3.0.
- In other software-related announcements…
OpenMap Software Inc. announced DBMap for Oracle Express, which extends development tools for embedding spatial data access and data visualization capabilities into online analytical processing, data mining and other decision support systems.
Performance Awareness Corp.’s new preVue-C/S 5.0 performance testing software supports Oracle Developer/2000 and Oracle Applications.
- Lingo Computer Design Inc. released Fiscal Budget, a relational online analytical processing extension for business planning and forecasting that offers direct access to Oracle7-based data warehouses. Pricing is 0,000 for a 10-user license.
Meanwhile, a variety of companies made Windows NT-related announcements, including:
Tandem Computers Inc.’s ServerNet will support Oracle7 Parallel Server database software for Windows NT Server environments. The ServerNet system area network offers high-speed transmission of data between clustered systems.
Janna Systems is releasing Janna Contact Enterprise Oracle Edition for collaborative relationship management, document management, scheduling and communications.
Sylvain Faust Inc. is releasing SQL Programmer 2.0 with support for Oracle7.
Richter Systems Inc.’s RAMS 2000 (Retail Automated Merchandising System) is available for Oracle7 on Windows NT.
Bluecurve Inc.’s Dynameasure 1.5 supports Oracle7 Server on Windows NT for performance and capacity measurement of online transaction processes.
- Three of ESRI’s GIS (geographic information systems) programs for Windows NT, ARC/INFO, MapObjects and ArcView, can be used with Oracle7.
- In hardware-related announcements…
Also at the OpenWorld conference, Network Computer Inc., Oracle’s network computing division, is slated to announce a number of new licensees: RCA General Electric, which will manufacture a 00 set-top box network computer for the consumer market, and Funai Electric Co. Ltd., which plans to launch Janesa, a network computer for both the corporate and consumer market, which will cost 00 and will ship in December 1996.
Acorn Computer Group PLC will demonstrate four new network computer devices: the Office network computer, the ExecPhone which will be a desktop telephone with a network computer, the set-top box network computer and the network computer TV.
Akai Digital will announce that it is to ship its 49 Akai Internet Connection network computer in the first quarter of 1997. IDEA is to ship its Internet Client Station (ICS) today and it will be available for 00.
Proton Industrial Electronic Co. Ltd. will announce its Xavier set-top box network computer priced at 99 and shipping in the first half of 1997, when Proton will launch its ProNet Internet Service for Xavier customers. Uniden is also planning to announce a wireless network computer, for shipment in early 1997 to the consumer market.
In Paris, Thomson Multimedia signed an agreement with Oracle to develop a set-top box for Internet access. A U.S.-based spin-off of Acorn Computing Group PLC, NetChannel Inc., will provide the software. The French consumer-electronics producer will manufacture the terminal and Oracle will provide the “architecture” for the set-top box. A Thomson spokesperson declined to say what the architecture entails, or whether the box is based on Oracle’s network computer reference design.
Thomson plans to ship the terminal in the U.S. in the second quarter next year for 00. Thomson will ship the terminal in Europe later, but has not fixed a date.
