More Than 30 Vendors Demonstrate Applications and Drivers for Microsoft
ODBC at DB/EXPO

SAN FRANCISCO--May 4, 1993--More than 30 vendors are demonstrating their
support for the Microsoft Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) at DB/EXPO'93,
which opened here today. Twelve leading software providers are
demonstrating ODBC in the Microsoft Corporation booth (#502), showing a
variety of front-end applications, application development tools,
relational database management systems and database drivers for ODBC.

"Microsoft is excited to see the tremendous amount of support being shown
for ODBC by the ISV community at DB/EXPO," said Jonathan Lazarus, vice
president, systems strategy at Microsoft. "Based on our Open Services
Architecture, these components and products will allow customers to
participate in the democratization of data via ODBC."

The 12 vendors demonstrating ODBC in Microsoft's booth are Apple Computer,
Inc.; Blue Sky Software, Inc.; Cognos; Coromandel Industries, Inc.;
Hewlett-Packard; Information Builders, Inc.; Ingres; Knowledgeware, Inc.;
PageAhead Software Corporation; Powersoft Corporation; Q+E Software; and
Tandem Computers, Inc.

In addition to the 12 vendors demonstrating today with Microsoft, 21
software providers are showing ODBC-compliant applications or ODBC drivers
in their own booths. Those software providers include the following:
Andyne, Approach Software, Chen & Associates, Cincom Systems Inc, DataEase
International, Digital Equipment Corporation, Dharma Systems, Fulcrum
Technologies Inc, Guild Inc, Indigo Software, MapInfo, Micro Decisionware
Inc, Microrim Inc, Oracle Corporation, Quadbase, Raima Corporation,
Software Publishing Corporation, Tandem Computers Inc, Trinzic, WATCOM,
and XDB.

An additional 40 vendors have also committed to supporting ODBC, most of
which expect to deliver drivers or applications supporting ODBC in 1993.
In total, more than 75 database and application providers have now
endorsed ODBC.

"Industry standards such as ODBC are an important component of Powersoft' s
best-of-breed Client-server Open Development Environment (CODE)
initiative," said David Litwack, president of Powersoft Corporation.
"Early on, we invested significant resources in order to exploit this
API's strengths and gradually move away from vendor-specific interfaces.
ODBC's acceptance by leading database vendors finally allows us to connect
to database products on our 'wish list,' enabling a significant number of
corporate sites to benefit from Powersoft products."

"One of the best ways to advance the ODBC specification is to deliver
products that customers can apply to real-world needs," said Bruce
Dougherty, vice president of Tandem Computers Incorporated, Cupertino,
Calif. "To further ODBC as an industry standard that meets those
real-world needs, Tandem invites applications and tools providers to work
with us to achieve ODBC interoperability. The level playing field created
by the standard will allow customers to choose the best database for their
requirements, including Tandem's high-function, high-performance NonStop
SQL distributed database management system. The multivendor support for
ODBC will also promote enhancements to client-server technologies, a
significant benefit to customers."

ODBC Provides Common Data Access for Windows and the Macintosh

In July of 1992, Microsoft and Apple announced their support for the
combination of Microsoft ODBC and Apple's Data Access Language (DAL).
Today at DB/EXPO, Apple and Microsoft are demonstrating the ODBC/DAL
client software for Macintosh and Windows, which extends the reach of ODBC
to the Apple Macintosh personal computer. Having ODBC on both Windows and
the Macintosh gives customers consistent data access for applications on
both platforms and makes it easier to develop and deploy client-server
databases across both environments.

"Microsoft's ODBC and Apple's Data Access Language together provide a
complete cross-platform, data-access solution for client-server
computing," said John Nauman, senior director of integration technologies
for Apple's enterprise systems division. "Apple extended its Data Access
Manager API to include ODBC, and today we announced an ODBC Software
Developers Kit for the Macintosh, which will enable Macintosh developers
to build applications and drivers for ODBC. Developers will now be able to
code to a single data-access API, making their applications easily
transportable between Macintosh and Windows."

More on ODBC

An emerging industry standard for client-server database access, ODBC is
Microsoft's open and vendor-neutral programming interface for database
connectivity, based on the Structured Query Language (SQL) Access Group's
call-level interface specifications. ODBC is a cornerstone of Microsoft's
vision of Information at Your Fingertips and the Microsoft Windows Open
Services Architecture. ODBC provides access to data on virtually all major
databases residing on PCs, minicomputers and mainframe systems.

"Bankers Trust provides software to clients who have various types of
hardware and software, some on local workstations, some on LANs," said
David Osbourne, vice president, Bankers Trust. "We are looking forward to
working with ODBC because it provides data location transparency--whereby
data can be accessed from a local LAN server or host computer--and
promises support for stored procedures and scrollable cursors on any
platform. ODBC will allow us to write applications for access to databases
on single desktops, LANs, VAX, and IBM mainframes. ODBC will provide us
with a single API and greater SQL consistency for access across all
platforms."

ODBC can simplify application development by reducing the complexity of
interfacing PC-based and Macintosh-based tools to database management
systems. Through ODBC, corporations can continue to make use of their
existing data while rightsizing their applications using client-server
technologies. End users benefit from easy access to large volumes of
corporate data, including access to multiple database types from within a
single application.

The ODBC specification is a result of development through an open design
process in which vendors and corporations have reviewed the specification
and participated in developer' s conferences both in the United States and
internationally. The Microsoft Software Development Kit (SDK) for ODBC,
available to developers, reflects feedback that was actively solicited by
Microsoft from more than 300 developers using a pre-release SDK
distributed in March 1992 at the Microsoft ODBC Developers' Conference.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT') is the worldwide leader in
software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of
products and services for business and personal use, each designed with
the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take
advantage of the full power of personal computing every, day.

Microsoft Corp, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399
206-882-8080,  fax: 206-93MSFAX

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