Having recognised at the eleventh hour that proprietary hardware and software architectures are a rapidly wasting asset, DEC is moving as fast as it can to recast its product strategy to eliminate the price disparity between its proprietary VMS machines and the much cheaper Unix RISC machines. President Ken Olson has confirmed that the company is considering major changes to the VAX line that could see it recast as a RISC-based family by the mid-1990s, reports Electronic News. Advanced research and development work has begun on the proposed project, and the company is looking at the feasibility both of reimplementing VMS for a RISC architecture and combining VMS and the Ultrix Unix into a single operating system. Such a move would be following closely in the footsteps of Hewlett-Packard Co, but the Cupertino company has a five-year head-start on DEC. Any merger of the operating systems would be a very long-term goal because VMS and Ultrix machines can already operate in an integrated network, and Ultrix runs on both the VAX and MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC architectures. More over DEC has promised to implement compliance with the Posix low-level Unix standard in VMS. Having cancelled its own Prism RISC project that would have supported VMS, DEC is now likely to adopt the forthcoming 64-bit version of MIPS Computer Systems Inc’s R-series family for any merged RISC system. In the meantime, beyond the Aridus CPU, a project code- named Centaurus aims to re sult in a top-end VAX in Gallium Arsenide capable of delivering 100 to 150 MIPS.
