The news that IBM Corp is to get its next generation of monolithic mainframes OEM from Hitachi Ltd (CI No 2,418) is one of those stories that while not unexpected still causes a sensation when it is firmed up: it was not unexpected because it was clear from the start that there would be mainframe users that needed a really large uniprocessor for their workload, and would not be satisfied with the promised parallel machines, and IBM had made it clear that it was not developing its own successors to the ES/9000s, but it throws up a slew of marketing questions such as which way users will jump when IBM and Hitachi are both marketing the same hardware in competition with each other – perhaps there will be a non-agression pact where Hitachi does not itself actively market the new monsters outside Japan, and IBM Japan does not market the parallel line on Hitachi’s home territory.
