Altos Computer Systems Ltd is seeking to expand its reseller base and is currently going after the PDP-11/10 vendors. To this end Altos has taken on the TransBasic RSTS/E-Basic Plus migration package from Systime Computers Ltd. Altos has spent UKP70,000 for the licence to provide the 8,500 strong PDP-11 user base the tools to replace PDP-11s running Unix on Altos 286 or 386 machines. Altos says that it chose the Systime product as opposed to some of the other products that convert applications to a Unix environment – such as Datavision’s Universe Basic – because TransBasic allows users to continue running RSTS until they gain confidence in or find a need to use Unix – according to Altos it could find no other product that provided this. Many of the existing PDP-11 RSTS users are very happy in their environments and probably would stay as they are except for the rising costs in maintaining the obsolete DEC minicomputer and the problems in obtaining spare parts, according to Altos. As well as DEC resellers, Altos is also looking at similar products with which to woo Data General, IBM, ICL and Wang resellers. The AceCobol product from Austec International is being evaluated for the Data General offensive but Altos is still deciding on the other products. Altos UK expects to win over about three DEC PDP-11 resellers and expects a total of about a dozen new ones over the next 18 months. The first in line to take up the offer is Instate Systems Limited, a subsidiary of Instate Technology headed by John Arnold, former director of Systime. ISL also markets the Datavision product and C-Gen from MS Associates.
