Unisys UK Ltd says that there are no plans to kill off the Sperry line of mainframes in favour of the Burroughs family, and it denies that the recently-announced 2200-900 is the last Sperry-based system. There have been rumours that Unisys was about to bite the bullet and terminate one of the two ranges inherited in the Sperry-Burroughs merger of 1986. However, product manager Andy MacIntyre says that development of the A series will continue unabated and rumours to the contrary are totally untrue. MacIntyre claims that since there is a great deal of commonality between the two environments, Unisys’ objective is to have common hardware for the two lines within 10 years. Consequently, while both are strategic and further models can be expected, the company plans to integrate them and provide the best features of each on the other. One operating system and associated software is a complementary objective, but MacIntyre acknowledges that that is a longer term target, and unlikely to emerge within the next decade. Some commentators say that merging the two technologies is entirely feasible, but whether Unisys has the wherewithal to finance such a project is a moot point. The company’s financial difficulties are well documented, and even if Unisys is making money on existing business, servicing its debt may prove to be an unsurmountable problem. Given that background, there is speculation that Roseville may decide it cannot afford the luxury of long-term research and development and abandon one of the two families, although a more appropriate move would be to divest one of the mainframe lines to a third party, which would almost certainly be Japanese. Unisys’ long-term survival is a matter of debate at present, and there are many who feel that the company is fighting a rear-guard action. It seems unlikely that the US government would let the company go to the wall, but some watchers argue that to survive and prosper, Unisys must do a Storage Technology Corp and undergo reorganisation under Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection – but the share price is not signalling a filing.
