Everything bar a personal computer has to masquerade as a server these days, so IBM Corp’s vast grab-bag of anouncements, covering System 390 mainframes, AS/400 business computers, RS/6000 Unix machines and Pentium-based machines from the Personal Computer Co characterised them all as servers. It turns out that OS/390 is only a working title for the bundle of MVS/ESA and 30 other software products that IBM plans to offer, and that the thing will get a new name when it’s formally announced, but the first release is to be generally available in first quarter 1996. IBM is promising to take over the hassle of integrating and testing the products that make up OS/390. On the AS/400, DB2 Multisystem for OS/400 distributes database queries over 128 processors on 32 networked AS/400 systems, and DB2 Symmetric Multiprocessing for OS/400 spreads database queries over multiple processors on single AS/400 symmetric multiprocessing systems that use one centralised database. The company also added a new high-end AS/400 Advanced Server with four PowerPC AS A30 microprocessors as the 53S – there was already a four-processor 530. In the RS/6000 line, the new offering is the 100MHz PowerPC 604-based RS/6000 Model E20, which uses the PCI bus and can be integrated into personal computer local networks using a new AIX Connections feature in AIX Version 4.1.4. It starts at $10,000. AIX 4.1.4 also includes an Internet browser facility, and IBM is offering RS/6000 hardware with its own or Netscape Communications Corp Internet server software as a turnkey system. The Power GXT1000 graphics accelerator is now supported on the PCI bus-based RS/6000 Model 43P workstation. In the proper server family there are new Pentium-based models in the PC Server 310 and 520 lines, and in the PC Server 320 line. The new models will start at from $4,250 to $7,700.
