Siemens AG has made the first major breakthrough for its 7.500 series of mainframe computers in the UK by beating Amdahl Corp and IBM Corp to the UKP10m contract to replace the Burroughs mainframe complex that makes up the Police National Computer. Siemens will supply two high-end 60 MIPS 7.500/H120-P mainframes running its BS2000 operating system – the only non-IBM-compatible operating system that can run Software AG’s Adabas database management system, which was mandatory for the contract. The machines are built by Fujitsu Ltd, and microcoded to run the Siemens operating system. PA Consulting has overall responsibility for the project and Thorn EMI Plc’s Software Sciences will do the communications to the computers operated by regional police forces.
