NEW YORK, Dec. 12 SAN FRANCISCO, CA., March 12, 2001 - THOUGHT, Inc. (www.thoughtinc.com), the builder of CocoBase® Enterprise O/R, a leader in Object to Relational Mapping technology for J2EE / EJB servers, announced today that its solution, now optimized for IBM WebSphere* Application Server, Version 3.5. CocoBase offers companies a quick and easy way to integrate relational data with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) applications. Customers using CocoBase with WebSphere Application Server now have the ability to gain substantial time and labor savings through generating scalable and high performance Container and Bean Managed Persistence (CMP/BMP) in addition to Java Server Pages, with its dynamic mapping capability. With support for Websphere Application Server, CocoBase Enterprise O/R customers will be able to leverage a compelling platform for building enterprise-strength Internet business applications.

"Our integration with the WebSphere Application Server supports both Container and Bean Managed Persistence as well as the JSPs to get to the beans, providing a complete optimized development platform for database access with EJB applications. Combined, the two products deliver flexible and customizable persistence that can easily adapt to our customers' needs," said Ward Mullins, CTO of THOUGHT Inc.

Container Managed Persistence (CMP) allows developers to build EJB components without having to directly deal with persistence during development. Since Bean Managed Persistence (BMP) requires that developers write a certain amount of persistence code, the use of CMP reduces the need for a developer to understand or to implement persistence code while dramatically speed up and simplify development. In contrast, the use of BMP makes it easier for the developer to edit and customize persistence code during development. Although BMP delivers much needed flexibility to the developer, it also increases the complexity, which CocoBase Enterprise O/R manages for customers. By utilizing CocoBase Enterprise O/R, the developer will find very little difference building applications with either CMP or BMP.

"WebSphere provides an open standards-based platform for building and deploying e-business applications, including development tools, application server, commerce catalogue, portal and personalization capabilities." said Paraic Sweeney, vice president of marketing, IBM WebSphere. "The addition of CocoBase support provides application developers flexibility when developing and deploying high performance enterprise e-business applications."

The CocoBase Enterprise O/R mapping tool provides full support for EJB 1.0 and 1.1. CocoBase can consistently generate all of the CMP/BMP entity beans as well as JSP with persistence code necessary from its highly optimized and editable templates. The solution, when leveraged with the WebSphere Application Server, can provide rapid development and fine-grained object to relational mapping that meets the needs of enterprise systems. These templates are optimized for the EJB server so that the demands of scalability and high performance of enterprise systems can be met.

"We find that the main requirements companies have for building applications on the EJB server platform is high performance, ease of use and scalability," said Dan Wilson, vice president of sales and marketing at THOUGHT Inc. "The enhancements to our CocoBase Enterprise O/R, specifically for WebSphere Application Server make it an essential part of the solution for delivering these requirements to our customers."

Following is an explanation of abbreviations and acronyms used in this news release:

JDBC - Java DataBase Connectivity
EJB - Enterprise Java Beans
CMP - Container Managed Persistence
BMP - Bean Managed Persistence


About IBM's (NYSE: IBM) WebSphere Software
WebSphere is Internet infrastructure software -- known as middleware -- that enables companies to develop, deploy and integrate next-generation e-business applications, such as those for business-to-business e-commerce. WebSphere supports business applications from simple Web publishing through enterprise-scale transaction processing. WebSphere transforms the way businesses manage customer, partner and employee relationships. More information about the WebSphere software platform is on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/websphere.

ABOUT COCOBASE ENTERPRISE O/R
CocoBase Enterprise O/R provides a powerful standard for bridging the chasm between objects used by EJB Servers and RDBMS's. The CocoBase technology is based on landmark patents issued to THOUGHT Inc. for Repository based Object Mapping. It is the technology and product leader in the Java space. After 4 years of product acceptance and thousands of installation sites, CocoBase is in a class by itself in terms of Object to Relational Mapping. THOUGHT Inc. invented Repository based Object Mapping and then built a system on that technology that actually is more efficient than static solutions. This makes it an essential necessity for any Java Enterprise Component Developer.

ABOUT THOUGHT, Inc.
Established in 1993, THOUGHT Inc. is the market leader in Java-based object-oriented Mapping Middleware technology. THOUGHT Inc. has been shipping CocoBase, the patented flagship product and the industry's most advanced framework for accessing legacy data in a distributed application since March of 1997. Since that time, THOUGHT Inc. founders have successfully provided solutions for customers deploying applications on the Worldwide Web and have gained a reputation for excellence in their field. CocoBase is a standards based product relying on such technologies as RMI, CORBA, JDBC, EJB, etc. THOUGHT Inc. makes its home in San Francisco supporting customers worldwide in the United States, Europe, Japan, Asia and Australia. The CocoBase family of products are available through distributors, resellers and directly online at their Yahoo Store. CocoBase and THOUGHT Inc. are registered trademarks of THOUGHT Inc. CocoBase technology is based on US patent #5857197. More information on THOUGHT Inc. can be obtained online at www.thoughtinc.com or by calling, (415) 836-9199.