OWLIM 4.2 embraces the latest standards to deliver a quantum leap in functionality and performance

[Apologies for cross-posting]

Ontotext are pleased to announce the release of OWLIM version 4.2 
<http://www.ontotext.com/owlim>. This version has been developed in 
parallel with the Sesame openRDF framework <http://www.openrdf.org/> 
where Ontotext continue to invest development resources.

OWLIM 4.2 is bundled with Sesame 2.5 
<http://www.openrdf.org/news.jsp#sesame-2.5.0> to deliver SPARQL 1.1 
Update <http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-update/>. This emerging SPARQL 
standard provides a much more powerful method to modify 
<http://www.ontotext.com/owlim/sparql11> RDF databases without the 
requirement for developers to use frameworks and APIs. SPARQL 1.1 Query 
conformance has been brought up to the May 2011 working draft 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-query/>, i.e. all the remaining behaviour 
has been implemented along with all the new SPARQL filter functions.

This version of OWLIM-SE is already in use as the engine behind The 
National Archive's Semantic Knowledge-base 
<http://www.ontotext.com/case/nationalArchives-skb> (SKB). This 
installation is used to store government datasets, the FactForge 
<http://factforge.net/> dataset and metadata totalling almost *12 
billion statements* with high-performance query-answering. Updating 
queries in this environment to use SPARQL 1.1 Query features has in some 
cases shown dramatic hundred-fold improvements in query performance 
<http://www.ontotext.com/owlim/sparql11>.

Using SPARQL 1.1 features through the sesame interface of OWLIM (instead 
of the Jena <http://jena.sourceforge.net/> interface adapter) has shown 
a dramatic improvement in the explore-update and business-intelligence 
use-cases of the Berlin SPARQL Benchmark 
<http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/BerlinSPARQLBenchmark/> (BSBM). 
Updated results will be published in the very near future.

The next steps for OWLIM will include full SPARQL 1.1 Federation 
functionality, data-type indices for faster range queries, graph level 
security and virtualisation/nesting of repositories.

Full documentation for all OWLIM editions is available online 
<http://owlim.ontotext.com>.

The OWLIM team.
August 2011