http://www.informix.com/informix/corpinfo/hot/illbkg.htm (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)
Illustra Information Technologies
Illustra TM is the leader in a growing new category
of information managment systems: content management. From video to audio,
time series of stock prices to derivative calculations, or Web sites to
HTML pages, we offer the solution to today's content rich application needs.
Illustra has the unique ability to intelligently manage all data types through
snap-in software modules called DataBlades (R). If you can create a new
data type, you can store and manage it in Illustra. Illustra is the ultimate
client-server weapon for current and future multimedia applications, because
it does not require you to predict what type of new data the future will
bring.
Illustra was founded in California in August 1992 to address the business
world's growing need for an information management system capable of storing,
retrieving, manipulating and managing increasing amounts of complex data
such as video, audio, images, time series, and documents. With the help
of its strategic alliances with companis such as America Online, Intel,
Silicon graphics, Sun, Tandem and others that share the same vision, Illustra
is growing rapidly worldwide. The new approach to database management is
finding acceptance in industries where survival and success increasingly
depend on having the ability to manage complex data. Examples include multimedia
asset managment (interacive software development and entertainment); electronic
publishing and managing of multimedia content on public and private networks,
including the Internet and the World Wide Web; financial institutions managing
risk for large portfolios of financial instruments; government and intelligence
agencies with huge databases of spatial (GIS) content.
Illustra Products
Illustra Server: The Illustra database combines the best features of both
object and relational databases. With the emergence of mutimedia and other
complex data types such as the hypertext markup language (HTML) of the World
Wide Web, organizations realize they need to incorporate new kinds of data
with traditional text and numbers. New data types are not easily, if at
all, handled by relational databases. Illustra handles multiple complex
data types easily, retaining the ability to use the familiar structured
query language (SQL) characteristic of traditional relational database management
systems.
Illustra DataBlade Modules: DataBlade modules are "snap-in" software
modules which extend the databases ability to handle new data types and
provide new methods for specific handling of the data. DataBlade modules
can work alone or in conjunction with one another; they can even include
completely new access methods, providing quick access to data not well served
by btress or the RDBMS vendors. Example DataBlade modules are Text, Image,
2D Spatial, 3D Spatial, TimeSeries, Video, Web, Visual Information retrieval
and S-Plus, with additional DataBlade modules soon to come.
Illustra Tools and Toolkits: Illustra's Tools and Toolkit products provide
powerful mechanisms for enabling application development with the Illustra
Server. This suite of tools changes application development from low-level
programming to high-level componentware assembly designed to serve developers
creating multimedia or Web applications for the Illustra Server. These tools
consist of: Schema Knowledge, the ODBC Driver, the Illustra C++ Interface
and the Illustra Client Toolkit of Windows.
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