These days, IBM Corp finds it has constantly to compromise on the integrity of its product line just to win business – you hate the Micro Channel and want AT bus? You got it. Now K-Mart Corp – for which IBM also deviated from its AIX-OSF/1 course and bid Unix System V.4 of all things in hopes of snaring a sizeable contract from the Unix International Inc stalwart – is not happy with the jerry-rigged hardware that IBM is bidding along with the software. Believing that IBM intended to keep the PS/2 line single processor only, its own people bid PS/2 Model 95s with AOX boards to make them multiprocessors like K-Mart wants, little suspecting that deep within the bowels of IBM lurked an unannounced asymmetric four-to-six processor 80486 server. You can imagine internal reactions to press reports the week before last that such a beast existed – such a Super Server family had actually been hinted at way back in March (CI No 1,624). Now the IBM team has to determine whether these multiprocessors – or something like them – are actually going to be turned into announced products and resubmit its K-Mart bid tout de suite.
