Data General Corp, whose post-Motorola Inc 88000 strategy for the AViiON line looked at one time to be a sure-fire PowerPC gain, says it has lots of trouble with PowerPC as a viable alternative to 88000, reckoning the thing to be little more than an AIX engine. Instead, Data General has put Intel Corp’s iAPX-86 at the top of its list for further evaluation as the next processor family for its AViiON servers and workstations (CI No 2,611). Not only does Data General now have a well-tested implementation of its DG/UX Unix up on iAPX-86 (CI No 2,397), but it says it is now also interested in Sun Microsystems Inc’s UltraSparc as a RISC processor rather than PowerPC. It apparently sees little interest in open specifications for PowerPC, citing Apple Computer Inc’s withdrawal from PowerOpen as evidence the organisation is little more than an AIX talking shop. Moreover, it is uncomfortable being tied to IBM and it [IBM] deciding what the next set of ABIs will be: Intel seems a better bet, the company said: no-one is going to say you are stupid for choosing Intel. It is also fed up with listening to the hype about chips. Intel clearly has the most durable design, it concludes. Data General is still expected to use PowerPC in some capacity, but as an embedded controller for its successful CLARiiON storage range, not as a mainstream processor. It is already selling SunSoft Inc Interactive Unix and Windows NT on iAPX-86 boxes and offering DG/UX for iAPX-86 is apparently a no brainer. Moving its 88000 hardware base over to iAPX-86 will, it admits, be a different kettle of fish, and it plans to nail down all software, migration and co-existence issues well before it makes any announcement. In any case, it has got further generations of its 88000 systems scheduled, with Motorola design shrinks and clock speed-ups for 88110 under way. As well as iAPX-86, Data General expects to be supplying its 64-bit DG/UX on Sun’s first 64-bit part, the V9 UltraSparc, through Sparc Technology Business. Although it acknowledges that there has not been a huge demand for 64-bit application software on currently-shipping 64-bit architectures, Data General expects some people will want to put the hardware through all 64 paces, and with SunSoft’s Solaris not expected to be 64-bit any time this century, believes DG/UX will be suitable. Meantime, Data General has a new 5.4.4 release of DG/UX waiting. It will not make Spec 1170-compliance until a subsequent release, but says the testing and branding process has not happened as fast at it would have liked. The company is now looking at Mortice Kern Systems Inc’s commands and utilities to replace its current Novell Inc set, the same collection SunSoft uses in Solaris. It is going through B1 security evaluation, and reckons it will be the only mainstream commercial Unix to achieve US defence clearance at this level. Novell, Data General believes, has priced itself out of the market with UnixWare 2.0. They have not figured it out – it and others want to be suppliers of Unix technology but Novell wants distribution agreements it complained.
