Users planning to buy the next generation of Amdahl Corp’s Millennium CMOS-based mainframe, due to be announced at the end of this week, will have a long wait. The Millennium 600, codenamed Trigger, will not ship until the end of the first quarter of next year. Trigger will have a 75 MIPS uniprocessor and will be available in a maximum 12-way configuration. This compares to the 60-65 MIPS engine size and 10-way maximum configuration of mainframe rivals IBM Corp, due to be announced next Monday. But while users will have to wait until 1998 for the next Millennium, IBM is already shipping the next iteration of its System 390. While IBM now waits until it is in production before it announces a product, Amdahl is announcing nearly 12 months before availability, commented one analyst, Amdahl had to be seen to be doing something. This is a defensive, not an offensive, announcement, Although the 75 MIPS engine and 12-way configuration will give Amdahl both the largest processor and CMOS system, its leadership will be short-lived, as IBM is expected to announce and ship an 80-85 MIPS processor this time next year.
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