IBM has been promising, but stalling on, a C compiler for the AS/400 ever since the machine was launched, but there is no point in the company holding its own product any longer – Amalgamated Software of North America Inc, Malibu, California will just start eating its lunch. Diploma/C is due to be available worldwide in September – no prices given – and is claimed to be Systems Application Architecture-compliant. IBM will view the product as a two-edged sword: on the plus side, it means that applications written for Unix will be able to be moved across to the AS/400 in the short term, but in the medium term, many developers of new applications for the AS/400 are likely to favour C over RPG 400, and will be able to make those applications available for the generality of Unix systems as well. As the only supplier of AS/400 hardware, IBM is able to keep prices artificially high, whereas the fierce competition in the Unix market means that prices are extremely keen, so that C will begin to be seen as a route away from the AS/400 into the cheaper Unix world.
