TopSpeed provide an ODBC driver that enables third party applications to connect to TopSpeed format data (.TPS
) files.
The ODBC driver's architecture is 32-bit, which means it can only be used with a 32-bit application. This is because an application and its libraries (for example, the ODBC driver and the ODBC Driver Manager the application uses to load the ODBC driver) must all be the same architecture.
There is a solution, however. The Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge enables a 64-bit application to connect to a 32-bit ODBC driver (and vice versa). For example, you can use the ODBC-ODBC Bridge to connect a 64-bit application such as Microsoft Power BI to TopSpeed.
The ODBC-ODBC Bridge has two components: the client and server, which can be installed on either the same machine or on different machines. The ODBC-ODBC Bridge client communicates with the ODBC-ODBC Bridge server by using RPC, which means the architecture of the client does not dictate the architecture of the server. So, a 64-bit client is compatible with a 32-bit server (and vice versa).
The ODBC-ODBC Bridge sits in between the application and ODBC driver. The client passes the ODBC calls the application makes to the server, which then passes them on to the application.