ECLIPSE uses the same commercial database technology employed by American Express, Anheuser Busch, Apple Computer, Boeing, Citibank, Ford, General Electric, Holiday Inn, MCI, Nike, Pizza Hut, SONY, Xerox, TRW, the United States Air Force, and dozens of other companies whose products you use daily**.

The primary design goals were as follows:

	Enhance database performance of a product regularly cited as the performance leader.
	Provide physicians with unprecedented direct access to the database so they can... create reports... create charts... hire a programmer to add features... export data to various formats... without the involvement of the ECLIPSE design team.

These goals were achieved as follows:

	The new database is accessed directly by ECLIPSE via native C code for unmatched performance.
	The database is also fully compliant with the universally adopted ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) standards. Thus, end-users can purchase a low-cost ODBC driver (typically under $100) to access the database via currently available or custom designed third-party software...
	Report generators (e.g. Crystal Reports) and charting programs can be used to create custom reports and graphs independently by the end-user.
	All data can be directly exported to other database formats (e.g. Microsoft Access).
	"Companion" databases can be created in other formats (e.g. Access, dBase) which interact directly with the v8 database to add features independent of those added by us.
	A Client/Server version of ECLIPSE decreases network traffic on large (e.g. multi-site) networks via centralized data servers to enhance speed. Multi-disciplinary offices and hospitals can now connect to one another with high throughput and data reliability.

** For comparison, most competitive programs use low-end consumer products such as Microsoft Access, FoxPro, dBase, and other general purpose databases which sacrifice performance for ease of use (by the programmer). As data is added, dramatic performance degradation is often noted. The typical cure suggested by vendors after performance degrades is "buy a faster computer".