"UNIX IS THE WAY AHEAD AS OS/2 LOSES MORE GROUND EVERY DAY, SAYS VIEWLOGIC SYSTEMS

Unix is fast becoming the clear standard for technical computing applications, even on the desktop, according to Sal Carcia, founder of the founder of Marlboro, Massachusetts-based computer aided engineering company Viewlogic Systems Inc. The slow development of personal computer operating systems capable of taking full advantage of Intel's newest generation iAPX-86 processors has left a window open for Unix, says Carcia, and accordingly Viewlogic is re-positioning itself to focus on Unix versions of its Workview software, which previously was available mostly for the personal computer-based desktop computer-aided engineering market, although DEC VAX versions are also available. Workview Series II will now become the company's flagship product; it is already available on the new range of Sun workstations announced last month, including the Sparcstations, and Viewlogic will be announcing the next machine it plans to support - the DECstation 3100 - at the major Design Automation Conference and exhibition, to be held in Las Vegas towards the end of June. Beyond that, Carcia says Viewlogic will be put up under AIX on the new IBM RT, due out later this year, and eventually back to desktop personal computers running Unix. The main motive for the switch to Unix is to allow the Series II software to take advantage of facilities such as virtual memory, multi-tasking, and networking. But OS/2, which could offer many of the same facilities, is not currently under consideration. Every day that goes by, OS/2 is losing ground, says Carcia. We are keeping an eye on OS/2, but going with Unix. Formed in 1984, Viewlogic targets the world's top 200 electronic companies as its customers, and now has 4,000 systems installed at organisations such as DEC, IBM, AT&T, Intel, Harris and Unisys, and in Europe British Telecom, British Aerospace, Telefunken and Ericsson. Just as Daisy, Mentor and Valid gained their entry into the computer-aided engineering market when Computervision and Amplicon, in the words of Carcia diluted their resources by moving into mechanical design, so Viewlogic sees a similar opportunity as the newer companies follow the same path, extending their product lines to computer-aided design and manufacturing. Viewlogic says it will retain its computer-aided engineering focus, and hopes to strengthen its position by opening up its software to allow integration into other design environments. The key elements in this stategy include support for X Window, the Ada-like VHDL hardware description language developed for the US Department of Defense and now an IEEE standard, and the Electrical Design Interface Format designed for swapping technical data between systems. Workview Series II is for designing analogue, digital and mixed analogue-digital designs, and at the Design Automation Show new elements are planned, including a new hardware modeller bought in from Milpitas, California-based Logic Modeling Systems Inc, a new schematic logic synthesis module, and fault analysis. OEM agreem software from Harris and Intel are also expected to be announced. Viewlogic now employs 140 people and has sales approaching the $20m mark.

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