Despite IBM’s best efforts, not all its existing System 34 and 36 users are going to migrate to the AS/400 without giving alternatives such as the DEC VAX and the enormous range of available Unix systems serious consideration, and Arix Inc, San Jose, California is pulling out all the stops to persuade the waverers that if they do go for Unix, Arix machines are the answer. It is going after any disenchanted System 34 and 36 users who have software written in the RPG II language – in other words the vast majority – with a product from the Emerald Isle. The company has signed a worldwide agreement with Software Ireland Ltd in Dublin to sell on its Unibol/RPG II migration tool across the full range of Arix supermicros. Unibol/RPG II is an implementation of the RPG II language running under Unix that is compatible with language and support utilities supplied with the IBM hardware. The Irish product includes a compiler, a runtime interpreter, a symbolic debugger and utility support programs that provide a complete RPG II environment under Unix. IBM left an enormous void and a lot of concerned users when it abandoned the System 34 and decreased support on the System 36, reckons Arix UK managing director David Bethel. This agreement will enable us to plug the hole.
