IBM has confirmed to Computerworld that it has now successfully completed evaluation of the feasibility of implementing the DPPX operating system on the new 9370 small mainframes – but says that its unfortunate 8100 processor users will have to wait at least two years for the implementation to be completed and tested. IBM announced last April that there would be no further hardware developments on the 8100, but that DPPX would live on in some form, adding that evaluation of 370-type technology under DPPX was being evaluated, and that the evaluation would be complete by early this year (CI No 413). In the meantime, IBM continues to offer 8150 CPUs to users who need them – but the protracted development period set for DPPX/SP 370 is likely to see many of the 15,000 estimated 8100 sites worldwide looking for an alternative, in which case IBM would abandon the DPPX effort. Although IBM is talking in terms ofa native DPPX on 9370, it likely will be supported only under VM.
