Unisys Corp launched its 2200/500 system worldwide last week, championing its CMOS technology as a key element to force mainframe prices down into the minicomputer market (CI No 2,253). The company, which also trundled out an uninspiring update to its 1100 operating system, called OS 2200, said that it was up to a year ahead of IBM Corp in implementing CMOS general purpose technology. The 2200/500 comes in a variety of models – five in all. Users can buy models ranging from the ?280,000 single processor model, with one instruction processor, one input-output processor and 128Mb to 256Mb memory, all the way up to the maximum system, inside two processor cabinets, with four instruction procesors, 1Gb memory and 16 input-output processors. Top price for a system is ?1.3m. Using Unisys’ Extended Processing Complex, 2200/500 systems can be strung together to get up to 600 times the power of the smallest machine, according to Unisys. The OS 2200 system includes Posix compliance, and can interface between Unisys and non-Unisys databases via SQL/89. The system contains a full Open Systems Interconnection implementation and handles TCP/IP and SNA – but Unisys has had those for ages. Unisys will tack Open/On-Line Transaction Processing as dictated by X/Open, in mid-1994. The 18 CMOS chips are implemented in Motorola Inc technology, and, along with the 85% of components which it says are bought at commodity prices, make the machine almost an office unit indeed, it can be used in an office environment. Unisys quotes Gartner Group estimates that it is up to a year ahead of other mainframe vendors such as IBM in the use of this technology. Motorola is co-fabricating the chips, which isn’t surprising, because Unisys has a long-standing relationship with Motorola on chip technology. Even if Gartner Group is right and IBM is way behind, IBM is still scurrying around trying to get its CMOS strategy in order. Sources predict a CMOS release from IBM in the next two months in the form of a database box running a System 390 architecture, probably using four to 16 9221 microprocessors. The box, running DB2, will perform enquiry-only work, taking queries from an ES/9000. As for IBM’s Sysplex-linked 48-processor unit, (CI No 2,232), that might not see daylight until 1996 according to sources.
