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REGISTER
FOR SPC 2005 BEFORE MAY 7, AND YOU WILL BE ENTERED IN A DRAWING
TO WIN A HIP GLOBAL POSITIONING DEVICE!*
When you register for SPC 2005 before May 7, you could win
a brand new GPSMAP® 60CS from Garmin®. This unit is
lightweight yet rugged, waterproof, and it includes a 256-color
display, built-in compass, elevation sensor, and much more.
The Synergex
Success Partners Conference (SPC)-June 8-9 in Boston and June
15-16 in London-is your annual opportunity to get up-to-speed
on the latest technologies available to you and your Synergy
applications. At SPC 2005, discover how your Synergy applications,
your developers, and your business can benefit from the latest
Synergy/DE capabilities.
- Get
an update on the new features available in xfServerPlus,
including how to use the latest collection argument type
to optimize your server routines, and how to enable multiple
pooled instances by creating numbered interface names from
a single Synergy Method Catalog.
- Experience
the new features of Synergy Language, including improved
capabilities within the Windows Print API.
- Learn
about new features in xfODBC, including performance
improvements for custom SQL statements and reporting applications.
Find out about new capabilities in Crystal Reports XI, such
as the use of wizards to make generating reports easier.
- Make
sure you are taking advantage of all the latest capabilities
of Professional Series Workbench.
- And
more ... Visit the SPC
Web site for a complete list of conference topics.
Register
today!
*We
are giving away one device for customers registering for Boston
and another for customers registering for London.
^
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EXPOSING
YOUR SYNERGY APPLICATIONS THROUGH WEB SERVICES: IT'S EASIER
THAN YOU THINK!
Do you
plan to expose your Synergy applications through Web Services?
Let Synergex give you a jumpstart.
With Synergy/DE
technology, you can expose your application functionality
via XML Web Services in Java, COM, or Microsoft .NET environments.
And within five days, with Synergex's Passport to Web Services,
you will be well on your way to a Web Services solution.
What
is Synergex's Passport to Web Services?
This class
is designed specifically to help you expose your Synergy applications
to non-Synergy client applications, using XML Web Services
as middleware. Our unique integration of products and services
will help you transform your existing applications into e-business
applications with ease. The Passport to Web Services includes
the Synergy/DE products and licenses you'll need, as well
as customized training from a Synergex consultant to help
you efficiently start your project and lay the groundwork
for you to successfully complete the job.
Visit
our Web
site for more information.
Another
education opportunity…
On May
4 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, Synergex is holding a Synergy/DE
Professional Series Workbench Highlights class. Follow
this link to learn more and find out how you can register
for the class.
^
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CUSTOMER
SUCCESS STORY: MCS uses Synergy/DE xfODBC to help customers
visualize their businesses with multidimensional analysis
and graphs
GOLD RIVER,
Calif., and THAMES VALLEY, England, April 19, 2005 -- In January,
MCS introduced the latest in business intelligence software:
MCS Business Intelligence Data Cubes. The Cubes enable hire
(rental) organizations to effectively identify strengths and
weaknesses throughout their entire business operation.
To read
the entire press release, visit the Synergex
Web site.
^
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SYNERGEX'S
PLANS FOR SYNERGY/DE AND WINDOWS x64 SYSTEMS
In the
previous Synerg-E-News, we included a link to an article
about Microsoft's upcoming x64 platform releases as well as
a link to our 64-bit
Windows Synergy/DE FAQ document.
(Attention HelpDesk Support
customers: After clicking on the above link, log in to the
Resource Center. You'll then be redirected to the appropriate
Web page.)
The FAQ
provided information about our plans for supporting Synergy/DE
on 64-bit Windows platforms. The following article provides
additional details about 64-bit Windows, along with updated
information about our Synergy/DE plans. (Our FAQ document
has been updated accordingly.)
x64
systems versus Itanium-based systems
Windows Server 2003 has been available on the 64-bit Itanium
platform since February 2003. This platform runs native 64-bit
applications reasonably well, given its relatively slow clock
rate. However, the compiler technology and optimization capabilities
are not very advanced. Service Pack 1 (released March 30)
improves this, but optimization is still difficult and requires
complex workload-specific tuning for each application due
to the complexity of the chip architecture.
In late
2003, AMD introduced 64-bit extensions to its IA32 architecture,
creating the AMD64 platform. Intel followed suit in late 2004
with its EM64-T-based Pentium 4 and Xeon chips, which are
instruction-compatible with AMD64. Microsoft supports AMD64-
and EM64-T-based systems with the x64 Editions of Windows
XP and Windows Server 2003. Although the x64 systems may not
have the performance potential of the Itanium-based system,
they have significantly better performance than their 32-bit
predecessors with far less complexity than 64-bit Itanium.
Consequently, x64 platforms do not require complex application
tuning to achieve their performance potential.
An additional
advantage to x64 platforms over the 64-bit Itanium platform
is that they are better at running 32-bit applications. Just
as 32-bit operating systems run 16-bit programs in the WOW32
environment, 64-bit operating systems run 32-bit programs
in the WOW64 environment. For x64 platforms, WOW64 translates
the 32-bit API calls to native 64-bit API calls for the OS
and runs native x64 instructions. The benefits are that 32-bit
programs run as fast on an x64 system as they do on a 32-bit
system (if not faster), and you can run either a 32-bit OS
or a 64-bit OS on an x64 machine. On the 64-bit Itanium system,
however, WOW64 is effectively an emulator, so 32-bit programs
run slower than they would on 32-bit systems. Additionally,
you cannot run a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit Itanium system.
Because
of the advantages of x64 systems over the Itanium-based systems,
we are currently planning to support the x64 Windows platforms,
and we are not planning to support the Itanium-based Windows
platform.
Why
move to 64-bit?
There are a number of advantages to 64-bit systems over 32-bit
systems:
- The
memory footprint is no longer limited to 4 GB (2 GB for
the OS and 2 GB for applications and databases), enabling
databases, for example, to cache more information.
- Terminal
servers can be configured to run more than 50 sessions because
the desktop heap is no longer limited to 24 MB. (It can
be greater than 4 GB.) Additionally, both 32- and 64-bit
programs can be running in the terminal services sessions.
The upshot is that you may need fewer terminal server machines.
- Native
64-bit programs have more registers to optimize (on x64
there are 11, versus 3 for 32-bit), so native programs run
much faster. In one test, a 64-bit Synergy/DE program ran
80% faster than the identical 32-bit program. For more computational-bound
programs, such as graphics drivers, the gains can be even
greater.
- Operating
systems are faster. While current 32-bit operating systems
may end up running on a 150 MHz Pentium 1, and are designed
to work on such systems, 64-bit machines all have Pentium
4 SSE2 instructions as guaranteed base-level instructions,
which enables 64-bit operating systems to use more modern
CPU instructions and more advanced optimizations.
Our
plans for Synergy/DE and x64
We have been running 64-bit Synergy/DE with beta x64 Windows
systems for over a year and have found these platforms to
be very stable. We plan to release 64-bit Synergy/DE (system
code 104) for x64 systems in Q3 of this year (soon after our
Synergy/DE 8.3 release).
In the
meantime, you can use 32-bit Synergy/DE (system code 101)
on x64 systems; however, because of registry and service name
conflicts, Synergy/DE services will not be supported. (The
Synergy/DE services are License Manager, xfServerPlus,
xfServer, and SQL OpenNet.) If you have an immediate
need to run a Synergy/DE service on a released x64 system,
please contact your Synergy/DE Account Manager.
The 64-bit
version of Synergy/DE will support native 64-bit SQL Server
and Oracle; however, it will not support ActiveX lists due
to the lack of support from our third-party vendor (FarPoint
Technologies, Inc.). New Synergy/DE licenses will be required
for 64-bit Synergy/DE, and the 64-bit License Manager server
will serve both 32- and 64-bit clients. If you want to mix
32- and 64-bit Synergy/DE, you will be able to install both
versions on your system and run the 64-bit services.
For more
information on Windows x64 operating systems, visit Microsoft's
Web sites:
^
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SUPPORT TECH
TIP: Returning the full path for an environment variable rather
than the DOS truncated version
Question:
On Windows, if I call GETLOG to return the value of the environment
variable TEMP, it returns the following string:
C:\DOCUMEN~1\USERXXX~1.000\LOCALS~1\TEMP
which is an abbreviated notation for
C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\USER.XX-7975-1.000\LOCAL
SETTINGS\TEMP
How do
I get the full path for the variable TEMP rather than the
DOS truncated version?
Answer:
What you want is GetLongPathName, which is in kernel32.dll.
Call it as GetLongPathNameA (ANSI string version).
<length> = %dll_call(kernel32_hndl,
DLL_TYPE_WINAPI,
& "GetLongPathNameA", <shortpathname>,
& <longpathname>, ^size(<longpathname>))
<longpathname> will be returned with the expanded specification,
and <length> is the length thereof.
^
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PLATFORM AND
TECHNOLOGY NEWS: RECENT HEADLINES
The following are some recent press releases, articles, and
publications about operating systems that Synergy/DE supports,
as well as other technology headlines that might be of interest
to you.
Intel
Linux
Microsoft
General
^
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WHERE
IN THE WORLD IS SYNERGY/DE NOW? Helping one company manage
the manufacturing and distribution of high-volume production
fasteners to the automotive industry
For over
a quarter of a century, MNP Corporation has been manufacturing
and distributing high-volume production fasteners to the automotive
industry. Headquarted in Utica, Michigan, MNP also has their
own steel processing and washer manufacturing divisions, as
well as flat roll capabilities located throughout the United
States. Several years ago, MNP purchased Radley Corporation's
Synergy/DE-based CARaS (Computerized Automotive Release accounting
System) application to assist them in receiving and processing
their electronic customer schedules on their DEC VAX system.
In search of a business system to interface with CARaS, MNP
found and purchased the TCM (Time Critical Manufacturing)
application from Effective Management Systems (now WorkWise).
Today,
MNP is still using both Synergy/DE-based TCM and the next
generation of CARaS, Synergy/DE-based iCAraS-both on Alpha
systems. They have incorporated Synergy/DE xfServer
technology to access TCM data from the iCARaS front-end. And
MNP's development team is able to continually modify TCM as
needed to meet their ever-changing business demands.
"Twenty-five
years ago, it didn't matter to us what development environment
these applications were based on," states Ron West, Development
Manager at MNP. "We were just looking for two high-quality
products that would sustain our business for many years. Obviously,
that is what we found."
For more
details, visit MNP's
Web site.
^
Top
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click here.
Trademarks:
Synergex, Synergy, Synergy Development Environment, Synergy/DE,
and all other Synergy/DE product names are trademarks of Synergex.
All other product and company names in this newsletter are
trademarks of their respective holders.
Synergex
International · 2330 Gold Meadow Way · Gold
River, CA 95670
+1 916.635.7300 | 800.366.3472 (North America) | 0800.898.368
(United Kingdom)
Copyright © 2005 Synergex International Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Synerg-E-News
04202005
|
News
for Professional Developers
