Matisse Announces Availability Of Matisse 5.0
New Developer Web Site Launched - Free Developer Version!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 1, 2001-Matisse Software Inc today announced the availability of the first developer release of MATISSE 5.0, the SQL-Object database platform. The MATISSE platform enables developers across the world to implement new applications that require high performance on complex data.

With Version 5.0, Matisse is aiming squarely at the developer community. The first developer release, now available for free download at www.matisse.com, supports the most popular server platforms including Sun Solaris, Linux, Windows NT, and FreeBSD. In addition, MATISSE 5.0 supports a broad range of language bindings including SQL, Java, C++, C, Python, Perl, PHP, and Eiffel. Most of the language bindings are being offered as open source software.

MATISSE Version 5.0 marks the first release available to developers since Matisse acquired the rights to MATISSE in December 1998. Matisse has previously used MATISSE as an embedded database in its content management and CRM applications. According to Robert Blumberg, Matisse's President and CEO, "MATISSE continues to have a worldwide following, and there has been an ongoing demand to make the database available. With the explosive growth of Java and object oriented development, MATISSE's unique capabilities make it a natural solution for persistent objects. Its broad language support means that it can be used in just about any computing environment."

Unique Capabilities
MATISSE was initially conceived from the ground-up to support mission-critical process control applications. Having been under continuous development for over 12 years, with Version 5.0 MATISSE has matured into a full-featured, robust database management system with many unique capabilities.

Two of MATISSE's unique capabilities are its adaptive object model and its intrinsic versioning architecture. The adaptive object model enables developers to dynamically and rapidly modify the database schema-classes or properties can be added or deleted while the system is online.

The MATISSE intrinsic versioning architecture ensures database recovery while avoiding the overhead of transaction log operations and administration. In a write-intensive environment with numerous users, MATISSE shows an overwhelming performance advantage without the loss of database integrity, recovery, or programmability.

According to Doug Barry, Chair of the Object Data Management Group (ODMG), "The reappearance of MATISSE, with its wide use of database standards, further supports the general adoption of standards in the area of object storage."

Developer Website - Free Developer Version
Matisse also launched a new developer-oriented website for MATISSE 5.0. The new website, www.matisse.com, offers a free, full version of the binary executable together with a free, collaborative, discussion-rich community for developers to interact. Matisse worked with Kaivo, the Colorado-based leader in open platform consulting, to define and develop the website.

According to Brian Cabral, President of Kaivo, "The MATISSE developer website leverages the open-source software development approach to encourage developers to share ideas and obtain free support." While MATISSE requires a run-time license for the deployment of commercial applications, its bindings are available as open source and the developer version can be used at no charge.

Background and Customers
MATISSE was initially developed as a solution for non-stop industrial control applications where key requirements were non-stop, high volume processing and an adaptive schema that could be modified without halting the database. MATISSE is currently being used in applications where the relational database model fails to deliver scalable, manageable solutions. The largest implementation to date is COGEMA, a major European nuclear-fuel reprocessing company, where MATISSE serves as the central process control repository. It handles real-time data feeds from sensors and fulfills the requirements for a real-time, mission-critical repository operating 24/7. Other applications include pharmaceutical processing for Sanofi-Synthelabo, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical groups and a music CD browsing and creation system for Free Record Shop, the largest music retailer in the Netherlands.

International partners include Euriware, a major French solutions provider and Power Computing and Communications, the commercial software arm of the University of Amsterdam.

New Features
In addition to its greatly enhanced language and platform support, MATISSE 5.0 adds a number of features that improve support for very large databases and increase reliability. It also incorporates an XML interface and support for additional multimedia data types. According to Edouard Duvillier, Matisse's Senior Director of Core Technology, "In Version 5.0 we've rebuilt the foundation of MATISSE. This has enabled us to add core features like database checkpointing and lay the groundwork for many new features that will appear in future releases. With Version 5.0 as a foundation we expect to be very responsive to future customer requirements."

MATISSE 5.0 also extends its robust SQL implementation to bridge the standard relational DBMS development language with object methods, tools and languages. MATISSE uses a standard SQL implementation to deliver native SQL ODBC/JDBC connectivity with Internet and database tools. MATISSE supports standard SQL operations and extends the popular query language to provides full support for all object mechanisms including polymorphism, inheritance, and encapsulation. MATISSE's native support for standard SQL makes it possible to migrate applications while leveraging the user's familiarity with SQL. For this reason MATISSE 5.0 is the first database that can be termed SQL-Object.

About Matisse
Founded on a unique, proprietary technology, Matisse Software Inc. provides data enrichment and analytics to improve customer relationship management. The Matisse applications automatically discover and associate related concepts, helping users better understand and navigate large volumes of unstructured data in real-time. Matisse adds value to existing CRM infrastructures by increasing the depth and timeliness of knowledge available in customer data. The Matisse platform is based on an object-oriented technology, MATISSE 5.0, developed at MIT and perfected in over ten years of real-world application. Matisse is a privately held company based in Burlingame, CA. For more information visit www.matisse.com.

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