3Com palms Sybase database

Sybase and 3Com today announced a deal to bring Sybase's mobile database, Adaptive Server Anywhere, and its UltraLite technology, to the Palm Computing platform.

Slated to enter full beta testing in the next week, Sybase's UltraLite Database Technology for Palm Devices will provide software developers with a local, SQL-based relational database designed for applications built for 3Com's Palm Computing platform.

Sybase and 3Com plan to jointly market this package to their customers and business partners, according to the companies.

Sybase, along with Oracle and Microsoft, is investing additional development dollars into building software intended for mobile applications. Oracle is also building a Windows CE-based version of its Oracle Lite database software, expected to debut later this year.

The UltraLite Database Technology for Palm Devices is "tailored to have the features you need to run just the application you want and nothing else, saving Palm memory space while allowing users to access and use information in the database," said Cristina Lorentz, manager of embedded database technology at Sybase.

Sybase and 3Com are working with business partners in the health care and sales force automation industries to develop applications for the Palm Computing platform, like the Palm III connected organizer, the IBM WorkPad PC Companion, the Symbol SPT 1500, and the pdQ smartphone from Qualcomm.

UltraLite also delivers two-way server synchronization to the Palm Computing platform, "allowing access to corporate databases and enterprise resource planning systems," Lorentz explained. This will enable organizations to extend business applications such as sales force automation to the Palm platform.

The UltraLite Database Technology for Palm devices, Sybase's UltraLite deployment option of Adaptive Server Anywhere, is due to ship early next year. Pricing will be released then, the company said.