IBM90 speakers prove that nothing changes as they echo Great Exhibition of 1851
Despite the gales and general destruction that have been sweeping across Northern Europe, and the consequent disruption of the UK communications system, IBM’90 limped off at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre almost as planned. The show was opened by Lord Strathclyde, Under Secretary of State at the Department of Employment. The Minister is responsible for tourism, disabled people’s employment, the work permit scheme, statistics, research, local and regional employment issues, licensing of employment agencies, and energy conservation. So it makes a lot of sense to have that gentleman launch what IBM describes as the largest IBM user exhibition in the world. He was introduced by Ian Reynolds, IBM’s UK marketing and services manager. Reynolds says that the exhibition is not about hardware, but about systems that address production, cost effectiveness, competitive advantage, and global competition. He believes that the marketplace of the 1990s will be dominated by the pace of technological innovation, and the rise of something called the knowledgeworker. Apparently this is an insurance broker using on-line support, or an engineer sending 3D images to intelligent robots on the shop floor. Which is probably news to the boys in EC1 and Lynwood. Reynolds went on to address the growing problem of skills shortages in technology industries. The existing shortfall will be compounded by demographic changes, and universities are currently reporting a fall in demand for information technology courses. All of which gives rise to concern and demands for training initiatives. And this is where Lord Strathclyde enters the fray. He believes that the UK faces three principal challenges. The first is international competition, specifically from Japan, the Pacific basin, and possibly Eastern Europe. (Does that mean that the US doesn’t matter anymore, or are we one nation?) Strathclyde sees demography and technological opportunities as the other challenges. He believes that new technology can increase productivity and competitiveness, and offer more flexible employment. However, he stresses that there are no short cuts to a highly competent workforce. It can only be achieved through education and training. New technology, says Strathclyde, offers flexible approaches to training that will create a highly skilled workforce for tomorrow. All of which was being said shortly after the Great Exhibition in 1851, by educational reformers such as Huxley at the turn of the century, and a constant theme-song of governments throughout the twentieth century. Strathclyde rightly commended IBM on its training intiatives, but concluded by reminding all present that it is the consumer we answer to in the end.
Datapoint submits to Metropole exile to declare war on IBM over System/36 user base
Consumer choice has undoubtedly loomed large in the IBM mind of late, specifically in the guise of a company called Datapoint Corp. It is one of a sheaf of companies that weren’t allowed to exhibit at IBM’90, but it decided to set up shop next door at the Birmingham Metropole. According to Rodney Barnes, Datapoint UK’s general manager of marketing, he received nothing in writing from IBM, but was told that the companies’ interests seemed to be competitive, and Datapoint wouldn’t be welcome at the largest IBM user show. To be fair, that’s perfectly understandable since Datapoint is targeting at least 10% of IBM’s System 36 replacement market with its Vista 36 offering (CI No 1,369). The company says that of 300 System 36 users surveyed, 40% would consider alternatives to IBM when they need to upgrade, and according to Dataquest, there are 6,000 users in the UK. The company claims that Vista 36 can provide six times the performance of a System 36 for 60% the cost of an AS/400. Datapoint says that the five year cost of an IBM System 36 for 16 usersuser system with two 400Mb tape streamers and 12Mb of memory is UKP89,880. That’s UKP74,900 for the system, plus UKP14,980 for five years’ main
tenance. The Datapoint offering, including 16 8088-based mono stations is UKP47,278, plus five years of software and hardware maintenance at UKP17,712, total UKP64,990, 37% less on the initial price, and 27.5% over five years. The system uses California Software’s Baby 36 software which replicates the System 36 environment, and runs on Datapoint’s 80386-based DP7800 machines, manufactured in San Antonio, Texas. Network servers support between 15 and 200 users, and additional features include support for MS-DOS, Oracle, Unix, SNA or OSI communications, electronic mail, and telex. The components are networked on the Arcnet local area network, and information exchange is handled by the NetBIOS-compatible Datalan. Datapoint says that the increase in performance is obtained by shifting the application programming execution to individual workstations, and by using the central processor for file access, security, and overall management. The network can grow either by adding new processor boards, by adding network processors, or by adding more disks. New applications can be developed in C, Cobol, or SQL using Oracle’s relational database. Datapoint denies that Vista 36 is a one-off opportunistic attempt to capitalise on a temporary gap in the market. The company has been active in local area networks and mid-range computer systems for over 20 years. Its other activities include automatic call distribution and distributed data processing. A $300m company, Datapoint has subsidiaries and a distributor network across Europe and the Middle East. The UK contributes $55m to worldwide turnover, and Europe constitutes 70%. Asher Edelman, he of Storehouse notoriety, is chairman, and holds between 11% and 13% of Datapoint’s shares. The president is Michael Michigami, formerly with United Technology Computers. Datapoint forecasts that 50% of Vista 36 sales will be via value-added resellers, and the company has signed up Glynwed International Group as its first. The initial system is to be installed at Glynwed Metal Services in Walsall. Rather ironically, Glynwed Computing Ltd, also part of Glynwed International, was exhibiting at IBM’90. It distributes IBM’s AIX offerings, including the new RS/6000 range when it’s available. – Janice McGinn
Native software’s APC/400
Native Software says that it has been developing RPG compilers and software since 1983, and it was at IBM’90 to demonstrate the APC/400: this product can swap applications between a personal computer and System 36, 38, or AS/400 machines. Standard features include SQL, either interactive or compiled within RPG programs, a relational database manager with DDS compatibility, RPG compilers for RPG II, III, or RPG 400, command language support for OCL and CL, a program development manager, interactive runtime debug for RPG programs, and serial or local network communications support; an APC/400 single user development licence costs UKP2,000, and the runtime version is UKP700. It is available in the UK via 9380 Systems Ltd of Guildford, Surrey, Native’s UK distributor since 1984.
