With new RTs, IBM recognises that users want Unix fob commercial applications… In a quite remarkable volte face, IBM on Tuesday abandoned its stance that Unix was only for technical and engineering applications, and that the RT – or 6150 as some Europeans call it – was purely a technical workstation, and surprised an audience of software developers in Washington by inviting them to please implement multi-user commercial applications under the AIX implementation of Unix. This just might have something to do with the fact that Uncle Sam is rather impressed with the portability and machine independence of Unix and has no difficulty in taking on board the idea of using it for administrative data processing – in Europe, of course, most resellers of the RT sell it for business applications anyway but the change of tack nevertheless represents a major policy swing at Armonk. Turning to the products, the three new RT models, built around a 25% faster version of IBM’s RISC, are the desktop Model 130 and floorstanding 135 and B35. They also feature an enhanced level of the Advanced Floating Point Accelerator and 114Mb of fixed disk storage. The processor board also comes packed with 16Mb memory as standard, up from 4Mb on existing models. The machines have a 114Mb disk with Extended ESDI Fixed Disk and Adaptor as standard, and if you pay more, you can have the new 310Mb disk installed in the first drive position instead; two additional drives can be installed on the 135 and B35 for a total of 930Mb. The 6151 RT System Model 130 – it’s the RT System, not the RT Personal Computer now – is $23,220 in standard configuration, the 6150 Model 135 is $30,595 and the B35 is $32,165, and they’re available on July 29 in the US – IBM UK won’t speculate on when they might or might not be announced here. And it’s RIP for the original RT models: the 6151-10, 6150-20 and 6150-A25 will all be withdrawn from marketing on October 21.
and offers Micro Focus Cobol tools while Ingres, Oracle tie Cobol to SQL Now that IBM is encouraging people to see the RT as a multi-user business computer, it has to provide some of the appropriate software tools, and what could be more appropriate than the latest Micro Focus Plc Cobol compiler. IBM doesn’t come right out and say that it is the Micro Focus product through and thorugh, but as it is offered with the UK company’s Forms 2 and Animator, we can assume that it is. IBM says that the AIX/RT VS Cobol Compiler and Run Time Environment are designed to provide a complete Cobol development system and application support environment for the RT, and that the Cobol implements the Systems Application Architecture Cobol Common Programming Interface language definition. The compiler can produce both intermediate and native code and is to ANSI X3.23-1985 and 1974, both at the high level. The compiler has a one-time charge of $2,000 and the run-time system is a one-time $500, both to be available September 30 in the US. And to make Cobol even more at home on the RT, there’s an embedded SQL Cobol preprocessor for Ralational Technology Inc’s Ingres relational database on the RT. The Embedded SQL Preprocessor for Cobol enables Cobol applications to access Ingres, and Ingres/Net is enhanced with protocol support for SNA LU 6.2, so that the database manager can support a distributed database using SNA. The single user preprocessor is a one-time $300, the LU 6.2 enhancement is free, the first arrives at the end of September, the second follows at the end of October. And, not to be outdone, Oracle Corp also contributes Oracle Pro*Cobol Programming Interface for Cobol applications requiring SQL database access, and the Oracle SQL*Net SNA LU 6.2 Protocol Device Driver to achieve the same ends as the Ingres product – and at a one-time $450, Oracle undercuts Relational Technology, but charges the same amount for the LU 6.2 implementation. The device driver is out July 28, Pro*Cobol follows at the end of October. And effective October 19, IBM withdraws SQL/RT 2.1 from marketing. Min’n’match options with new RT disk IBM is very pr
oud of its new 310Mb disk drive for the RT, and points out that it is available as a model in the 6156 Portable Disk Drive line as well as an internal drive. The RT System can now have up to 7.46Gb when three of the new 310Mb drives are intalled, the 6156 Portable Disk and a 9332 are all used. Customers can substitute, at the time of initial order, an 114Mb or 310Mb fixed disk drive in place of the standard 70Mb or 114Mb drive in the 100 Series models of the RT, and a 310Mb drive in place of a standard 114Mb drive in the 6156 Portable Disk Drive and on the new RT Models 130, 135 and B35. The company gives only a price range of $1,100 to $6,895 for the new options, but the 114Mb and 310Mb options, the 310Mb second and third drive and the 70Mb and 310Mb Portable Disk Drive Modules are all available at the end of the month. CAEDS v3 available for the RT On the software front, IBM announced CAEDS v3 for the RT, saying that the product – the full name is Computer Aided Engineering Design System – provides drafting, design, and engineering facilities for dimensioning, solid modelling, and finite element analysis – and each can either operate independently or be fully integrated using a set of common graphics and user interface services. The new release supports enhancements to the IBM 5080 Graphics System, including advanced imaging, shading, and reflections. It offers interactive solid model editing; unified and adaptive meshing; geometry-based loads and boundary conditions; an integrated thermal and laminate composite modelling and analysis feature; a mechanism design system modelling feature; and a structural optimisation feature. The base system is $3,150 plus $380 a year if you want enhancements; the object modeller is $7,770 and $930 a year; the system modeller is $11,130 and $1,335 a year; the graphics finite element modeller is $11,340 and $1,360 a year; the Integrated finite element solver is $7,200 and $865 a year; and the dimensioning facility is $5,040 and $605 a year. All are planned to be available on August 26. Prices reduced on 5085 CPU, 5081 screen And finally, if you want to use computer aided design and modelling programs such as CAEDS on the RT, IBM reckons that you’ll really be much happier sitting at a 5085 graphics processor and a 5081 graphics display, and to encourage you to take the plunge, it has reduced their prices, with effect from last Tuesday. The 5085 is now 12% cheaper at $14,210, and the 5081 is reduced by 7% to $4,000.
