MSM Product Plan

Version 6 – InterSystems Corporation – December 23, 1998

1. Introduction

This document describes InterSystems' plan for the MSM product line. It is based on input obtained in meetings with a cross section of MSM customers — more than forty organizations, large and small, from four continents.

Our strategy is designed to serve all of our MSM customers, both those who want to continue to use MSM as well as those who want to migrate, in whole or part, to InterSystems' Caché products. For those whose needs are well served by MSM, InterSystems will continue to sell, develop, and support it. Our development efforts for MSM will be focused on tactical enhancements — just as they are for DSM, DTM, and ISM. For those whose needs are better served by Caché, our strategic development efforts for Caché will be extended to embrace MSM, making it easy for MSM customers to migrate to Caché. We will also offer special MSM-to-Caché trade-in terms, just as we have for DSM, DTM and ISM.

Note: If you have read previous versions of this document, you may want to consult Appendix A, which highlights the changes included in this version.

2. MSM Server

2.1 Tactical Development Plans

InterSystems will carry out tactical product development (and not strategic product development) for MSM-Server, just as it does for DSM, DTM and ISM. This means that we will add new features and support for new operating system versions but we will not undertake major development projects that alter the fundamental architecture of MSM. As an example of the latter, a number of customers have inquired about better support for symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) systems. Due to the "single process" architecture of MSM, this is a major undertaking. Customers who require better SMP support are advised to use Caché, which already has this capability.

InterSystems is assembling a feature list for the next version of MSM-Server to be delivered in early 1999. Items currently planned are:

· Support for new operating system versions, such as HP/UX 11

· Logging enhancements, including consolidation of multiple existing logs into one and the ability to log system messages somewhere other than the console

· Year 2000 corrections (also be available as a patch kit for version 4.4. See Section 2.3 for details.)

· Additional features to be determined

This list will undoubtedly grow as we speak with additional MSM users.

2.2 Platforms

The following table lists the supported platforms for MSM Server.

Full support means that InterSystems will:

· Provide telephone technical assistance

· Support new operating system versions

· Release new versions of MSM Server with product enhancements and corrections

Limited support means that InterSystems will:

· Provide telephone technical assistance

· Provide corrections, typically via maintenance releases, for critical bugs

2.3 Year 2000 Compliance

InterSystems has tested MSM-Server for Year 2000 compliance and published a formal Year 2000 compliance document. (At the time of the acquisition, Micronetics had published a Year 2000 white paper, but had not certified MSM for Year 2000 compliance.) We have found that MSM Server version 4.4 is not Year 2000 compliant in minor areas.

Unfortunately, due to less-than-clear communications from Micronetics on this topic, many customers have already installed MSM 4.4 on the assumption that it is Year 2000 compliant. To avoid massive disruption for these customers, InterSystems will:

· Certify MSM 4.4 and Workstation 2.0 as Year 2000 compliant with certain limitations and caveats. See the official Compliance document for details and Section 2.2 of this document for platform specifics.

· Provide a patch kit that can be applied to MSM 4.4 to correct some of these limitations without installing an entire new MSM system.

· Correct these problems in the next versions of MSM Server, MSM Workstation and MSM PC/PLUS.

2.4 Caché Migration Support

For customers who want to migrate applications from MSM to Caché, InterSystems provides Caché Language features, to reduce or eliminate the need for language-level changes to the application, and database conversion utilities, to reduce the time needed to move existing MSM data to Caché.

The following table shows the MSM platforms for which Caché is available.

2.4.1 MSM Language Mode

In order to simplify migration from older M systems, Caché includes language compatibility modes for DSM, DTM, ISM and MSM. These provide support for M language syntax that is unique to each of those products.

MSM language mode supports the following MSM syntax:

· OPEN command

· USE command

· CLOSE command

· JOB command

· $ZA special variable

· $ZB special variable

· $ZC special variable

· ZALLOCATE command

· ZDEALLOCATE command

· $ZNEXT function

· $ZORDER function

· $ZPREVIOUS function

· $ZSORT function

· $ZORDER special variable

· $ZREFERENCE special variable

· $ZVERSION special variable

· $ZERROR special variable with MSM error messages

· ZPRINT command

· ZWRITE command

· ZBREAK command

· ZTRAP command

Note that language mode can be set individually for each routine and a routine compiled in one language mode can call or be called by a routine compiled in another mode. Thus, for instance, an MSM mode routine could call a DTM mode routine which could in turn call another MSM mode routine. Once an MSM application is compiled in the correct language mode, it can be installed and run on any Caché system, now matter what other applications or language modes are used on that system.

Note also that almost all language mode processing occurs at compile time, not run time. As a result, using a language mode such as MSM will generally deliver the same high performance as Caché's native language mode.

2.4.2 Database Conversion

Caché includes a high-speed database conversion utility that reads MSM database blocks and converts them into equivalent Caché blocks.

3. MSM-Activate

MSM-Activate connects MSM servers with client technologies such as ActiveX and Java, enabling the client to execute M code or access M globals on the server. Activate is conceptually quite similar to InterSystems' Caché Direct technology, which was previously known as Visual M.

InterSystems' strategy for Activate is to:

· Provide support for, but not enhancements to, MSM Activate as it currently exists. This enables customers who are using Activate to continue doing so without interruption.

· Enable existing Activate clients to utilize Caché servers, by moving the existing Activate server code from MSM to Caché and DSM. This enables existing Activate-based applications to utilize Caché and DSM servers without application changes. Licensing policies will be consistent with those for Caché Direct.

Caché server support will be included in Caché version 3.1. DSM server support will be included in DSM version 7.2 and will also be available as an update that can be applied to existing DSM systems.

4. MSM-PDQWeb

MSM-PDQWeb connects Web servers with MSM servers. It enables processing requests to be sent from the Web to MSM and replies, in the form of static or dynamically generated HTML, to be sent from MSM to the Web. MSM-PDQWeb is quite similar, in both purpose and implementation, to InterSystems' Caché WebLink technology.

InterSystems' strategy for PDQWeb is to:

· Converge PDQWeb and WebLink, enabling applications written for either technology to run unchanged or with minor changes. The resulting product will be available on Caché, MSM, ISM and DSM servers. Note that this will deliver to MSM customers the two most frequently requested PDQWeb enhancements: support for Netscape Web servers (in addition to the currently supported Microsoft Web servers) and support for state-aware connections (in addition to the currently available stateless connections.)

5. MSM-Workstation

MSM-Workstation provides MSM capabilities in Microsoft Windows environments and has been used by customers in a variety of ways:

· As a GUI development environment, with the M Windowing API (MWAPI) providing basic GUI capabilities and an MWAPI-based tool providing interactive window layout and programming capabilities

· As a thick client, which runs M routines locally and may also have local databases

· As an easy way to distribute applications

· As an M application development environment, with a full screen editor and debugger

· As a royalty-free platform for distributing stand-alone (i.e. non-networked) applications

In the area of GUI development tools, InterSystems' and Micronetics' strategies differed greatly. Where Micronetics focused on developing its own interactive development environment, InterSystems focused on leveraging mass market GUI development tools such as Visual Basic and Delphi. We believe that the user interface arena will continue to change rapidly – witness the rapid shift from "traditional" Windows interfaces to the Web – and that only mass-market tools vendors will be able to keep up effectively.

We recommend the use of Caché Object technology, in conjunction with industry-standard GUI or Web development tools, for all new GUI development projects.

InterSystems' strategy for Workstation is to:

· Provide support and tactical enhancements to the core (non-GUI) Workstation product. It will continue to be available from InterSystems' Web site free of charge.

· Continue to ship the GUI components of Workstation in their current state. InterSystems does not plan to make any enhancements to them, nor to provide telephone technical assistance, nor to make any product changes other than to fix absolutely critical bugs.

· Incorporate debugging capabilities from Workstation into the Caché development environment

· Develop a simpler and more compact application distribution mechanism for Caché, akin to that in Workstation. Already the upcoming Caché 3.1 significantly reduces the disk footprint of our software, but there is more work to be done.

· Support connectivity from Workstation to Caché via DDP as well as MSM Activate.

· Provide royalty-free licensing for Caché PC. InterSystems already offers royalty-free Caché PC licenses for "low cost applications". We will now offer them for all stand-alone (i.e. non-networked) Caché PC licenses, using the same model as MSM-Workstation. For networked systems, server-side license charges will still apply, just as they do with MSM.

6. MSM-SQL

MSM-SQL provides access to MSM data via SQL and ODBC. The product is identical to KB-SQL, which is developed and sold by KB Systems. Micronetics sold and supported MSM-SQL by way of a distribution agreement with KB Systems.

InterSystems' previously announced strategy was to continue to sell and support MSM-SQL. Recently, however, we were notified by KB Systems of their intent to cancel this distribution agreement effective 31 December 1998. We will work with our MSM-SQL customers to try to ensure a smooth transition. Specifically, InterSystems will continue to sell MSM-SQL licenses and support contracts through the end of this year. We will not be able to sell new MSM-SQL licenses and support contracts after 31 December. We will continue to provide support under existing MSM-SQL support agreements until the conclusion of those agreements, or 30 June 1999, whichever is sooner.

We will also assist customers who want to migrate from MSM-SQL to Caché SQL, by offering an attractive license trade-in policy for MSM-SQL and by providing a conversion utility that converts an MSM-SQL data dictionary into an equivalent Caché data dictionary.

Appendix A – Changes to this Document

Summary of Changes from Version 4 to Version 6 of this Document

· Year 2000 compliance has been added for Motorola and ICL. (Section 2.2.)

· There are significant changes in our MSM Year 2000 plans. See Section 2.3 for details.

· Section 3 adds some details on how Activate support for Caché and DSM servers will be packaged and distributed.

· InterSystems sales of MSM-SQL will end on 31 December 1998. See section 6 for details.

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