Amdahl Corp’s European turnover totalled $570m in 1988, according to European chairman Peter Williams. The figure represents just 35% of the company’s worldwide 1988 turnover, which rose 19.7% to $1,802.0m, with profits up 52.7% at $223m. Within Europe, a turnover breakdown by product-sale showed a 55% to 65% contribution from mainframes, 25% to 30% from peripherals, and between 10% and 15% for services. Financial results aside, Williams placed the number of Amdahl Europe processors rated at 20 MIPS or above at 355 by year-end. He claimed that the figure represented a 5% to 35% share of the 370-type mainframe market, depending on the country. Williams also claimed that the European total for disk sub-system installations stood at 6,285 by the end of 1988, while European sales of the company’s communications controllers reached 394 over the same period. In France, where turnover for the year rose 56% to reach around $54.3m, the company sold 34 processors, over 500 disk sub systems, and some 50 communications controllers. Overall, he continued, product sales were spread between 473 European sites. Of these, 30% ran their operations exclusively on Amdahl processors, while 70% and 10% respectively exploited the company’s Multiple Domain Feature and UTS Unix implementation. Over 50% of the 473 European sites use more than one Amdahl product, he added. Looking ahead, Williams hinted at an IBM 3090-800, by suggesting that market demand for power is growing at a rate of 30% to 35% annually, while uniprocessor performance is growing at only 15% to 20% a year – and Amdahl’s uniprocessors are perceived to be least 50% more powerful than IBM’s. Addressing final comments to the Hitachi-EDS joint venture to buy National Advanced Systems, Mr Williams argued that, as the only supplier of American compatibles in the US, Amdahl had nothing to fear. He conceded that the deal might well push Electronic Data Systems Corp firmly into Hitachi’s arms.
