Just as Nixdorf Computer AG users feared, Siemens Data Systems users appear to have the better deal in the long-awaited rationalisation at the new Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG. At Hannover, it revealed that it would drop the top-end Targon/35 line based on Pyramid Technology Corp hardware, and banish the Motorola 68030-based Targon/31 line to a non-strategic role. In future, it will base its Unix strategy on a two-pronged product line using Intel iAPX-86 and MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC-based hardware, ending Siemens’ National Semiconductor NS32000-based multi-processors, the last to be based on Sequent Computer Systems Inc’s Balance range. They will be replaced by Intel-based Sequent Symmetry kit at the top end, and Siemens MX micros and WX workstations. The announcements confirm Nixdorf users’ worst fears: the Wall Street Journal reckons the 12% slump in Siemens-Nixdorf salec in the first five months of its existence was down to Nixdorf Targon and Quattro users defecting from the camp.
