IBM's server of Babel

by Mark Gibbs

February 16, 2001 —

So there you are, using an instant-messaging system to discuss the finer points of Web application development with " HotBlonde " from Sweden -- and because you don’t speak Swedish and she doesn’t speak English well, the intellectual exchange grinds to a halt.

Or perhaps you stumble across a really great Web page. But because it is on a server in Rome and your Italian is limited to "pasta" and "Ferrari," you are stymied.

Your language problems will soon end. In March, IBM (http://www.ibm.com/) plans to release its WebSphere Translation Server software and make it possible for Web servers to generate Web pages in multiple languages and allow e-mail and chat exchanges in different languages -- all in real time.

IBM plans to offer bidirectional text translation between English and French, German, Spanish and Italian, as well as from English to Chinese (both simplified and traditional), Japanese and Korean.

Running at up to 500 words per second, the WebSphere Translation Server will be supported on Windows NT, IBM AIX and Sun Solaris, with a limited version available for Linux.

Pricing will be $10,000 per language pair, per processor.

Network World