Amdahl Corp yesterday duly plugged the gaps in its 5990 mainframe processor line, with the introduction of a 5990-350 uniprocessor model and a 5990-1100 three-way multi-processor (CI No 1,152). The company has also added a second, entry-level 5990-500 dual processor model. Amdahl says that the 5990-350 provides 54% of the performance currently offered by the 700 model, rates the 5990-500 at 70% of the performance of the 5990-700, and puts a 45% performance increase over the 5990-700, on the new 5990-1100. In the US, the 350 starts at $3.81m, the 500 at $4.62m and the 1100 at UKP9.87m; UK prices are UKP2.3m, UKP3.1m, and UKP6.6m respectively. The uniprocessor will be available on a worldwide basis this month; the two other models are set for delivery in May. In the short-term, Amdahl denied that the new additions would lead to a decision to phase out its 5890 series. It also said it would honour its commitment to fit the 5890 family with Extended Systems Architecture, ESA, support, and says that as much as possible of it will be implemented in hardware rather than firmware to make it faster; it indicates that MVS/ESA capabilities will be available across its mainframes by the third quarter of 1989. However, it conceded that the future of the 5890 product line would come under scrutiny at the beginning of next year. There are also no plans to introduce a six processor 5990, with European marketing chief Alan Bell arguing that increasing the number of processors leads to diminishing performance returns. The company has also increased the number of domains available within its MDF Multiple Domain Facility. The maximum number of domains on single and dual processor models has now risen to seven from four, with an increase to 14 from eight on multiprocessors.
