August 7, 2003

SYNERGY/DE 8.1.5 BETA RELEASED TO TESTERS
A beta version of Synergy/DE 8.1.5 was released to beta testers on Monday, August 4th. Version 8.1.5 is scheduled for general release in October. This new version will be a "must have" for xfServerPlus users. Not only will it improve the performance of your deployed applications, it will also help you develop your applications by providing you with new debugging capabilities.

Would you like to get an early start with the 8.1.5 features? You can still join the beta test program if you sign up by this Monday, August 11th. If you are interested, please let us know.

For more details about the Synergy/DE 8.1.5 beta, visit the Synergy/DE Beta Test Center on the Synergex Web site.
(You must be a Synergy/DE HelpDesk Support customer to view this page. After clicking on this link, log into the Resource Center. You will then be redirected to the appropriate Web page.)

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PORT STATUS: PORTING SYNERGY/DE TO HP OPENVMS ITANIUM®
We are preparing Synergy/DE to run on OpenVMS Itanium, and we are excited about providing you with a migration path to this new platform. HP's release target for OpenVMS Itanium is June 2004, and we plan to coincide our release with theirs. We will post occasional updates like this one in Synerg-E-News to keep you informed of our status. (For more information about this platform, see the next article, "PLATFORM NEWS: HP RELEASES OPENVMS 8.0 FOR ITANIUM TO SELECTED EARLY ADOPTERS.")

Our most significant progress to date has been in the following two areas:

- ELF (Executable and Linking Format) object generation: Because the Itanium platform supports a different object file format than the Alpha platform, the port requires modifications to the Synergy/DE OpenVMS compiler to enable the generation of ELF object files. We have completed our research and requirements in this area and are currently developing design specifications.

- C code compilation and testing: We recently received an evaluation copy of OpenVMS version 8.0 for Itanium including cross-compile tools that enable us to compile the Synergy/DE sources (which are mostly written in C) targeted for Itanium on our current OpenVMS Alpha system. To date, we have successfully compiled all of our C code, in addition to the PVCS sources that we will need in order to execute our complete build procedures. (Merant® PVCS(tm) is our configuration management tool.) We will start testing PVCS and the parts of Synergy/DE that have been cross-compiled on an rx2600 Itanium2 system in September.

Stay tuned to future issues of Synerg-E-News for up-to-date information on the progress of Synergex's port to HP OpenVMS Itanium.

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PLATFORM NEWS: HP RELEASES OPENVMS 8.0 FOR ITANIUM TO SELECTED EARLY ADOPTERS
While we are preparing Synergy/DE to run on the HP OpenVMS Itanium platform (see the previous article, “PORT STATUS: PORTING SYNERGY/DE TO HP OPENVMS ITANIUM”), HP is busy porting OpenVMS to the Itanium architecture. On June 30, HP announced the evaluation release of OpenVMS version 8.0 for Itanium-based HP Integrity servers. They released this version to selected ISVs who have begun porting their applications to the OpenVMS Industry Standard 64 (OpenVMS I64) operating system, utilizing the HP rx2600 server. Synergex is one of over 450 HP partners who have committed to porting applications to this new version.

HP plans to release their next evaluation release, OpenVMS 8.1, at the end of 2003. HP states: "Subsequent releases of OpenVMS will be based on a common source code, thereby ensuring that non-hardware dependent enhancements to the operating system will be available simultaneously on both AlphaServer and Integrity systems."

For more details, visit HP’s Web site.

For a list of quotes from OpenVMS Itanium Partners (including Synergex), visit this page.

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SYNERGY/DE ADVANCED CLASSES: SIGN UP TODAY
Ready to learn something new? Advanced Synergy/DE classes may be coming to a city near you. For more information about the following classes, visit the Synergex Web site.

September 29-October 3, 2003 -- Gold River, CA

October 13-17, 2003 -- Nottingham, England

October 27-31, 2003 -- Pittsburgh, PA

November 10-14, 2003 -- Montreal, Quebec

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THE PEPSI BOTTLING GROUP SELECTS GLOBAL BEVERAGE GROUP’S SYNERGY/DE-BASED SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTION FOR ITS CANADIAN OPERATIONS

WATERLOO, Ontario and GOLD RIVER, Calif. -- The Pepsi Bottling Group has selected Global Beverage Group’s (GBG) Synergy/DE-based Sales & Delivery Management System (SDMS) as its “route accounting” solution for its Canadian business.

Read the entire press release on the Synergex Web site.

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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SYNERGY/DE?
Helping you explore the Australian outback in your new 4-wheel drive vehicle.

One of South Burnett’s major car dealers, and winner of the 2002 Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award, Ken Mills Toyota offers a full range of high quality new and used cars for all purposes. Whether you’re looking for a small car to motor around town, a gutsy 4-wheel drive to explore Australia’s exciting outback spaces, or a powerful workhorse to help you get the job done, their trained staff will help you find the right vehicle. Owner Ken Mills started out as an apprentice motor mechanic for Toyota more than 30 years ago, finally opening his own dealership after working in every aspect of the automotive trade. His company now has outlets in Murgon and Mundubbera as well.

In March 2002 Ken Mills purchased the Toyota Dealerships at Nambour and Maroochydore on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, bringing the total number of outlets to 5 and number of workstations on the network to 65.

Ken Mills Toyota is the latest Toyota dealership to purchase the new version of Voyager from Gateway Software Solutions (Gateway). Based on Synergy/DE, Voyager is a Unix solution that allows auto dealers such as Ken Mills Toyota to track every phase of the automobile sale process—from verification of a buyer’s credit all the way to post-sales service calls. The software is a full turnkey product with accounting, inventory management, point of sale, and financial management components.

The auto market in Australia is made up of a large number of multi-site, multi-franchise dealers, and Gateway has found that the speed of Unix over a WAN is a major benefit and selling point of their solution. To give their Unix application a “Windows-like” interface, they wrote their Windows showroom and financial management components in a third-party product (Clarion) and integrated these components with their Synergy/DE application and data.

“This is a very competitive market,” states Jeff Gill, Gateway’s CEO. “By combining the industrial strength of our Synergy/DE Unix product with our modern Windows-like front-end, we are able to compete with the big players in the automobile software market, and win.”

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SUPPORT TECH TIP: GENXML: ERROR: UNABLE TO FIND METHODS FOR INTERFACE "NAME" IN SMC "LOCATION"
Q: When I use the genxml utility on OpenVMS to generate a Synergy XML file, I am getting this error:

"genxml:Error. Unable to find methods for interface "name" in SMC "location".

I’ve checked the Method Definition Utility to ensure that the interface is included in the catalog.

A: The problem is likely one of case. The interface names in the Synergy Method Catalog are case-sensitive. Because the DCL interface on OpenVMS uppercases names, unless you entered the interface name in the MDU in uppercase, you need to type it in the correct case on the genxml command line and place double quotes around it. This will preserve the case and avoid the above error. You will also likely want to put quotes around the XML filename, since it becomes the name of the Synergy component. See the Developing Distributed Synergy Applications manual for more information on using genxml on OpenVMS.
(You must be a Synergy/DE HelpDesk Support customer to view this manual. After clicking on this link, log into the Resource Center. You will then be redirected to the appropriate Web page.)

PAM MANNING OF DATANATIONAL AND SEBASTIEN CHAPUT OF THE CIS GROUP ARE THE WINNERS OF THE HELPDESK SUPPORT CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY DRAWING!
Congratulations Pam and Sebastien!

In an effort to continually improve the Synergy/DE HelpDesk Support services you receive, we have implemented a customer satisfaction survey on the closing of each HelpDesk Support ticket. The response so far has been tremendous. Randomly selected from the 1st and 2nd quarter 2003 respondents, Pam and Sebastien are the latest winners in our continuing survey drawing, each winning a $100 American Express gift certificate. The drawing of 3rd quarter 2003 respondents will take place in October.

Not on HelpDesk Support? Find out why our supported customers say things like...

"Your HelpDesk reps are great! They are always very quick to respond and really know their stuff!"

Judy Harrison
CareCentric

For more information about Synergy/DE HelpDesk Support, go to our Web site or contact your Synergy/DE Account Manager.

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