Gesellschaft fur offene Kommunikations und Informationssysteme mbH – or GKI – the joint venture between West Berlin-based Unix software outfit UniWare GmbH and East Berlin firm VEB Leitzentrum fur Anwendungsforschung, LfA, (CI No 1,382), is now up and running, according to UniWare’s managing director Henning Wilke. However, a result of the recent election of a new East German government has meant that legal frameworks for the establishment of private enterprise are not yet in place, and UniWare, like all other hopefuls, is waiting for new legal guidelines. Undaunted, the new venture has already started winning orders, supplying a more powerful UniWare C compiler to VEB Leitzentrum’s customers in East Germany, whose P8000 Unix systems use Zilog Inc’s ill-fated Z8000 16-bit microprocessor. Though this kind of hardware is likely to be obsolete soon with the advent of more advanced computer technology after trade barriers are lifted, the joint venture company believes that if it can win customers over to UniWare software now, loyalty to its products will carry over when users begin to get their hands on new systems. Indeed, according to Wilke, there is already a great deal of off-the-shelf 80386-based hardware in East Germany which has arrived by the backdoor and which needs software support. To promote Unix in East Germany, the East German Unix Users Group has organised an exhibition in East Berlin on May 22, at which more than 40 companies will be showing American and West European Unix hardware. It can now also be revealed that IBM’s new RS/6000 system has already made a foray eastwards one of its workstations running a set of graphics applications was used during the March 18 elections to analyse returns and plot the fortunes of the various parties. RISC-based technology in all its forms is still banned from export to the East, but IBM was granted a licence by CoCom to take an RS/6000 into East Berlin specifically for the election. The proviso was that IBM had to have a Big Blue henchman physically watch over the system every minute it was on East German soil, and return the thing, complete with all the software, untouched by East German hands. We also understand that IBM is gearing up for a big push to get the AS/400 established in the East German market. UniWare has published a 65 page report on the East German data processing marketplace which is priced at UKP500.
