Siemens Nixdorf Informationssystems AG, one of Pyramid Technology Corp’s two major European OEM customers, last week launched a new range of own-designed Unix servers (CI No 2,279), and laid out plans for a 24-processor symmetrical multi-processing system directly competing with Pyramid’s Nile range. We now have a full product range of our own and we will offer it, said Siemens Nixdorf vice-president Dr Horst Nasko, speaking in Munich last week. But Siemens Nixdorf still takes its Sinix operating system technology from Pyramid’s DC/OSx for use across its RM400 and RM600 ranges, in a deal that Pyramid UK’s Mark Hughes claims is more valuable than the original hardware deal. Additionally, Hughes said that Pyramid would be taking Siemens Nixdorf RM400 systems to fill out the gap in its own product line at the low end. And Siemens Nixdorf claimed that it was working jointly with Pyramid on the development of Pyramid’s planned range of binary-compatible massively scalable architecture systems, involving tightly-coupled clustering technology to form a very large single system. Pyramid would only say that many potential OEM customers were interested in that development, due to hit the market in the 1995-1996 timeframe. Siemens Nixdorf accounted for around 8% of Pyramid’s OEM hardware sales last year, with Inc C Olivetti & Co SpA accounting for the majority of the rest. Pyramid claims to sell between 55% and 65% of all systems direct now, and says that number will increase. It spends up to 65% of its development budget on system software, said Hughes. Unix and RISC is the core of Siemens Nixdorf’s Open Systems Direction, especially as a server system, and is even finding its way into the control systems arena, according to Dr Bodo. Siemens Nixdorf claims market leadership in European mid-range Unix systems, saying it has some 3,000 RM600s out on the field. It has ceased further development on its Motorola 680X0 Targon products, and more surprisingly, on its iAPX-86-based multiprocessor MX line. Judging from last week’s Munich presentation, NT is not regarded as a serious prospect as a server product, although the company insists it still has a strategic partnership with Microsoft over NT. We have decided in NT to concentrate on the lower end, said Dr Bodo. Siemens Nixdorf claims that, having tried both, its MIPS RISC technology offer considerable performance benefits over Intel’s Pentium. Future multiprocessing Intel systems might emerge from the personal computer end of the company.
