I-Logix Debuts UML-based Visual Application Development Platform Ready for Enterprise Deployment
SAN JOSE, Calif. – September 26, 2000 – I-Logix Inc., the premier provider of enterprise solutions for embedded applications development, today introduced Rhapsody 3.0, the next major update to its popular family of development solutions. Highlighted by new productivity features, Rhapsody 3.0 enables reuse of legacy code through enhanced reverse engineering, and ensures that the requirements, documentation and final implementation remain consistent. This major release also expands the infrastructure for enterprises to leverage their software designers around the world. Rhapsody 3.0 will allow software engineers to share designs within their own teams, across the company and with other companies, without fear that their designs will ever be out of synch, or that they will not be able to share their work because their partner uses a different UML tool.
In addition, Rhapsody 3.0 is the first modeling tool to truly leverage UML for automating the development process of real-time embedded Web-enabled applications. This upgrade also allows developers to add a Web-based remote monitoring, control and management capability to their out-of-the-box applications via a "get connected" technology component in Rhapsody. (See supporting announcement titled: "I-Logix Announces ‘Get Connected' Technology for Rapidly Web Enabling Embedded Applications.") Rhapsody 3.0 will be available within the next 60 days.
"As our customers rise to meet the design challenges of pervasive computing, I-Logix is committed to making developers more productive and the development process more efficient," said Neeraj Chandra, senior vice president of marketing and corporate development. "Rhapsody 3.0 is ideal for larger enterprises because it leverages the Internet as a development platform, allowing users to quickly and seamlessly share design models within teams, as well as with other companies. With our unique "Get Connected" technology, users will be able to bring innovative, Web-enabled applications, such as the ability to remotely manage embedded devices, to market even more quickly."
I-Logix has added significant functionality to enhance the collaboration capabilities of design engineers, allowing them to transmit Rhapsody designs across teams and between companies, which in turn improves their productivity. New Rhapsody 3.0 features that boost developer productivity include:
- Dynamic Model Code Associativity – Unique dynamic model code associativity builds upon the concept of round-trip engineering to provide a seamless development environment for the graphical design and the implementation code. Using Rhapsody 3.0, developers will be able to work freely in either the graphical design or the implementation code, while Rhapsody keeps both views automatically synchronized and consistent. Further, anyone accessing a Rhapsody design is assured that its documentation is current.
- Dynamic Model Code Associativity – Unique dynamic model code associativity builds upon the concept of round-trip engineering to provide a seamless development environment for the graphical design and the implementation code. Using Rhapsody 3.0, developers will be able to work freely in either the graphical design or the implementation code, while Rhapsody keeps both views automatically synchronized and consistent. Further, anyone accessing a Rhapsody design is assured that its documentation is current.
- Enhanced Reverse Engineering – In Rhapsody 3.0, the reverse engineering capability has been greatly enhanced by improving the reasoning of imported legacy code, as well as the synthesis of UML, which creates diagrams of the code.
- Additional Support for UML Diagrams – Rhapsody 3.0 features an expanded set of UML diagramming capabilities. The Component diagram allows developers to describe, maintain and manage artifacts during software development and depicts the relationships among these components. The Collaboration diagram enables software developers to describe the communication among objects in the system from an architectural perspective.
- Enhanced QSS DOORS Integration – Rhapsody 3.0 features integration with Quality Systems and Software's DOORS, facilitating design process integration by enabling bi-directional navigation between DOORS and Rhapsody. DOORS users can quickly navigate from requirements to Rhapsody design elements. Likewise, software developers using Rhapsody can easily navigate to requirements managed in DOORS, always keeping the original design requirements in synch with actual product development.
New Rhapsody 3.0 features that facilitate wider enterprise deployment by improving communication and collaboration among development teams include:
- Enhanced Web-based Collaboration – Rhapsody 3.0 lets users transmit designs via email and includes support for Microsoft NetMeeting sessions. Building on previous Rhapsody capabilities to publish designs to the Web, NetMeeting enables design teams to not only perform real-time design reviews and markup, but also to edit the Rhapsody model.
- XMI Model Interchange – Rhapsody 3.0 includes an XMI interface as a standard component allowing developers to exchange designs from other UML tools. (See supporting announcement titled: "I-Logix Brings XML-Based XMI Standard to the Real-Time Marketplace Driving Enterprise Collaboration and Paving the Way for "Collaborative Commerce.") This design exchange promotes greater inter- and intra-team collaboration across the enterprise and its partners, leading to broader collaborative commerce.
- Visual Differencing and Merging – Rhapsody 3.0 allows disparate teams to work simultaneously on the same design. Once work is complete, the two designs can be merged together and developers will be able to graphically organize and determine the differences between design components. Rhapsody 3.0 will also enable these designers to easily merge separate design components into a single entity.
- Linux Support – Rhapsody 3.0 runs under Red Hat Linux, enabling Linux developers to take advantage of UML-based visual programming. I-Logix is currently working toward support for MontaVista's Hard Hat as the first embedded Linux target environment.
"UML modeling and design strategies are increasingly becoming more important as design teams seek to streamline their development processes and take advantage of resources that may not be located just down the hall," said Dr. Jerry Krasner, executive director, Electronics Market Forecasters. "I-Logix has clearly addressed this challenge with Rhapsody 3.0, which is an excellent tool that tightly integrates the functionality required to simplify the process. This simplicity will enable even greater team collaboration and will further reduce the time to market of Rhapsody-designed products."
Founded in 1987, I-Logix is a venture-backed software company that provides enterprise solutions for real-time embedded applications development in the growing "pervasive computing" market. I-Logix' solutions significantly compress software development cycles while improving product quality. These products allow engineers to graphically model the behavior and functionality of their embedded systems, analyze and validate the system and automatically generate production quality code in a variety of languages. I-Logix uniquely integrates and associates the entire design flow from concept to code across an enterprise using both conventional and collaborative Web-enabled technology.
I-Logix is a member of the Object Management Group (OMG) and the Bluetooth SIG, a founding member of the Embedded Linux Consortium, and a founder of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). I-Logix is backed by ABS Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Gilde Investments, One Liberty Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. The company is headquartered in Andover, Mass., and has sales offices and distributors throughout the USA, Europe and the Far East. I-Logix can be found on the Internet at http://www.ilogix.com.
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Editors Note: Rhapsody is a registered trademark of I-Logix Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.