Hoping to dispel some of the negative vibes that already shroud the PowerPC 620 64-bit RISC, Compagnie des Machines Bull SA will put its four-way Pegakid board into people’s hands at UniForum next month, although it won’t be the system implementation running AIX that it has back in Grenoble. Bull says it will deliver uniprocessor 620 boxes by year-end with 620-based symmetric multiprocessing Escala units now due in the first quarter of 1997. General production of eight-way 150MHz PowerPC 604e Escalas is set for next quarter. Escala (formerly Pegasus) is the PowerScale I architecture-, Micro Channel-based server line that IBM Corp takes OEM for its RS/6000 series. Eight-way PowerPC 601-based Escala servers are already available, as are the one- to four-way 604 minitowers plus the PowerCluster (Mississippi) technology for clustering up to four 601 symmetric multiprocessing nodes. Whether IBM will make use of the PowerScale II architecture-based PCI-Micro Channel Pegakid technology in its own products remains under discussion. Bull has high hopes of turning PegaKid into a commodity item pitched against Intel Corp’s four-way Standard High Volume motherboards. At the low end Bull says it has defined a road map with Motorola Inc for the entry-level PCI bus-based 604 Estrella servers which are built around the guts of Motorola Inc’s PowerStack architecture and currently run AIX. A 150MHz 604e entry-level system is due initially, followed by a two-way system in the second half, then 200MHz 604++ versions of both. By next quarter it says it will be ready to detail a multiple operating system strategy for the line that will add NT and Solaris-on-PowerPC. Following the release of its 1995 financial results next month, Bull will also detail an ambitious Internet and Intranet strategy around Escala and Estrella running Netscape Communications Corp products to capitalise on the Internet server wave now breaking across Europe. Bull, which says it shipped over 5,000 Escalas in the year (most with two or more CPUs), expects its fourth quarter open systems business to show a positive operating margin and creep into the black for the first time, though it will show a loss for the year overall. It says it is experiencing impressive gains against the current leader in European Unix server shipments, Hewlett-Packard Co. Bull expects to report a 40% growth in its overall Unix business for 1995 and a 71% growth in European indirect sales. It is now dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on a new US distribution strategy – its Zenith Data Systems unit is responsible for indirect business there – including deals with new resellers such as Milpitas, California- based high-performance file server company Maximum Strategy Inc. Robert Kelly is now running the Bull HN Information Systems Inc subsidiary in the US following the departure of Axel Leblois.
