Now faced with competition from a gamut of Unix-on-iAPX-86 contenders, Santa Cruz Operation Inc, which is also in the process of taking itself public, is reorganising its Unix system software lines into a more orderly collection of distinct desktop and server products. They are based on a new version 3.0 of its Open Desktop operating system bundle and Santa Cruz Unix system. The most interesting new addition is Open Desktop Lite, a cut-down version of release 3.0 that is pitched squarely at the stand-alone iAPX-86 workstations also being coveted by SunSoft Inc, Univel Inc and NeXT Computer Inc. Santa Cruz Open Desktop 3.0 – formerly Santa Cruz Open Desktop Personal System includes a new kernel iteration, the absurdly named Santa Cruz Unix System V/386 release 3.2 version 4.2 (single user), with C2 security, X Window X11.5, IXI LtdX.desktop manager, 20 applications and utilities, TCP/IP, NetBIOS, Network File System, Microsoft Corp LAN Manager Client and support for protected mode MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 applications via Locus Computing Corp’s Merge.
Server products
It costs from UKP1,000 on CD-ROM to UKP1,300 on 3.5 disk, around the same as the existing version, and requires 12Mb RAM and 120Mb disk. Santa Cruz Open Desktop Lite is pitched as the minimum requirement for a desktop graphical workstation with 8Mb RAM and 100Mb disk. It comes with the same features as the Open Desktop 3.0, minus networking and Merge emulation. It is expected to come in at around or below the price of SunSoft’s Solaris x86 desktop system which is UKP600 – $800. Santa Cruz’s server products are now divided into three offerings. The multi-user Santa Cruz Open Server Enterprise System includes everything in Open Desktop 3.0, plus database tuning, Novell Inc IPX/SPX protocols, and Locus PC Interface server. It replace Open Desktop server system as Santa Cruz’s high-end offering and costs from UKP1,850 for a 16 user licence on CD-ROM to UKP2,875 for a 512 user licence on 3.5 disks. Santa Cruz Open Server Network System comes with the same basic system and networking components, but loses the graphical interface and Microsoft emulation technologies. It is priced at UKP1,570 for a 16-user licence on CD-ROM to UKP2,280 for up to 512 users on 3.5′ disks. The base Santa Cruz Unix V/386 Release 3.2 version 4.2 – without graphics, Microsoft compatibility and networking – is UKP500 for a two user licence to UKP1,550 for 16 users. All are available from June 1. A software development environment and multiprocessing are extra. Version 3.0 of Santa Cruz’s MPX multiprocessing technology – it is not multithreaded – requires 16Mb RAM per CPU and includes a new Hardware Abstraction Layer which retains system characteristics of some 22 Intel iAPX-86 multiprocessor boxes. The HAL enables existing MPX users with any of these systems to upgrade to MPX 3.0 without conversion. Other system configurations will be added to the Hardware Abstraction Layer as they come along. MPX 3.0 is UKP1,250. The new operating systems haven’t been recompiled for Intel’s Pentium – Santa Cruz says it would have to support two product lines otherwise – and sales on 80386 systems still make up half its business. It is offering optimised Pentium compilers for those that want to do the job themselves, but Santa Cruz claims performance increases by 170% on Pentium from an 80486 even without recompiling – and around 230% with recompilation.
