Unisys Corp says it will begin offering its Opus massively parallel processing system with 200MHz Pentium Pro nodes around the beginning of the second quarter of next year. Opus is based upon Intel Corp’s SPP Scalable Parallel Processor hardware and runs its own Unix System V.4.2 operating system atop the Chorus Systemes SA microkernel. Unisys says it will continue to develop the Opus Unix even though it is turning its other Unix systems over to UnixWare. The company says there is no truth to talk of Opus’s demise, attributing speculation to the disbanding of a discrete Opus division; the parallel processor now resides in the computer group formed in the company’s most recent reorganization into three business units. Unisys says the ccNU MA servers it will build with Data General Corp clustering technology are being designed as general purpose data centers, Opus remains the system for high-end database and decision support applications. It claims 20 Opus customers at 16 nodes each. Opus was launched in May 1995 making good an August 1993 pact between the two firms. Unisys’s initial expectation was that Opus would net it $100m business in 1995 and a 30% market share by the year 2000.
