Business Basic was an integer-only language inspired by COBOL, and contained powerful string-handling functions and the ability to manipulate indexed files very quickly.

Business Basic could interface to Data General's INFOS II database, and make calls directly to the operating system.

It lifted many of the Data General Business Basic constraints, and ran significantly faster by using the full power of the 32-bit processor.

Data General's programmers did have one major success on the AViiON when they unveiled a new version of Business Basic at a "shootout" between themselves, B32 and UBB.

Data General had added a caching mechanism to speed up their Business Basic's disk access, and it outperformed the other companies' products.