Comparex Informationssysteme GmbH is working with Amperif Corp, Chatsworth, California, on a competitor for Storage Technology Corp’s Iceberg RAID disk array subsystem. Announced in January (CI No 1,848), Iceberg has received high acclaim and though it is not due to ship until the second half of the year, commentators say it will be hard to beat if it delivers all that StorageTek has promised (CI No 1,850). Rolf Brillinger, Comparex chief executive, says that he is contributing towards Viking’s development costs, but is not willing to disclose the exact sum, rumoured to be tens of millions of dollars. Brillinger denies that the collaboration with Amperif is a snub to Hitachi Ltd, which supplies IBM-compatible mainframes to both Comparex and Hitachi Data Systems. The latter is 80%-owned by Hitachi, 20% by Electronic Data Systems Corp. Comparex, says Brillinger, would have been willing to contribute to Hitachi’s RAID development costs, but was not invited to do so. Comparex sales director and board member Dieter Jonescheit went on to say that Comparex needs to position itself for the future. Hitachi has started RAID development only recently – convinced, according to Jonescheit, that IBM Corp would not enter that marketplace. The Japanese company looks unlikely to launch a product before 1994 and, while he discounts suggestions that Amperif will ship this year, it will do so before Hitachi. Jonescheit acknowledges that the sooner a product hits the market, the sooner StorageTek can be challenged. However, reliability and functionality must be as good, if not better, than Iceberg, and a number of technical issues have to be resolved. The reliability of the head disk assembly is questionable and, while Amperif has existing hardware from its storage subsystems for Unisys Corp mainframes, which Comparex markets (CI No 1,435), the controller and attendant software involve use of Comparex technology. One further complication is that Hitachi Data Systems has committed to distributing the Hitachi RAID device. While Brillinger continues to deny that a merger between Comparex and Hitachi Data is imminent, other sources say it may well happen by the year-end. If so, the possibility exists that a merged Comparex-Hitachi Data Systems could carry rival products that neither side coming to the party wished to abandon.
