News

Software AG's Tamino takes a 'semantic' step

• By Rich Seeley
• July 22, 2004

Whether the W3C vision of the Semantic Web can be implemented in the real world may be debatable. But XML-based semantic technologies do have potential to be useful within the enterprise, contends Mike Champion, senior technologist with Software AG Inc., Reston Va.

In his view, information integration based on XML is likely to evolve to the point where an enterprise will have an ontology specific to its business that will allow for faster, easier retrieval of the exact data and documents a business user is seeking.

He cautions that this is his vision of what semantic technology may become in the next decade and is not an official Software AG position. However, in introducing the latest version of his company's Tamino XML Server, he hopes it will evolve with semantic technology.

'As XML has evolved, Tamino has evolved,' he said.

While labeled version 4.2, Champion told XDT that this is a key enhancement of the XML server, which he called 'the first major update since 2002.'

The focus has been on building 'industrial-strength' capabilities into the server to accelerate data access and expand the query and text retrieval functions, he said.

In keeping with Champion's vision of Tamino evolving with semantic technology, he pointed out that the new version offers capabilities for a meta data repository containing definitions of business terms that can be used for 'semantic integration.'

The new version has a special developer's edition and includes improvements made for developers, including:

• expanded XQuery, XPath and text retrieval functions, including a thesaurus; 
• additional indexing capabilities for rapid query execution; 
• improved handling of standard XML schemas; and 
• a redesigned and more intuitive online tutorial.

Software AG is also offering special pricing for developers so they can work on a pilot or proof of concept project without making an enterprise-level investment, Champion said.

Further information is available at http://www2.softwareag.com/Corporate/Solutions/integration/