Two Massachusetts firms, Cambex Corp in Cambridge and EMC Corp in Newton, are each claiming to be the first to offer add-on Central and Expanded memory for IBM’s 3090 series of mainframes – but since Cambex said it last Friday and EMC this Wednesday, Cambex has to be the firster, although EMC seems to be the cheaper. The Cambex offering is the Stor/9000, claimed to comply with the system-managed storage approach used in IBM’s Enterprise System Architecture and to use all standard 3090 diagnostics and report procedures. The Central memory comes in 32Mb increments at $210,000, a 22% discount on the IBM price; the Expanded store in 64Mb increments at $175,000, also 22% off IBM’s price, including nstallation, for first quarter 1989 ships. EMC’s 3090 system Central storage upgrades are available in 64Mb increments on 2Mb and 4Mb boards, and are compatible with the 180E through 600E but not the S models, and are expected to be 30% cheaper than IBM storage. The Expanded also comes in 64Mb blocks, and fits all base and all E models, but again not the Ss. It also says that delivery will be four to six weeks when shipments start in January 1989 for Central and March for Expanded store substantially less than IBM’s lead times. EMC claims that stringent proving includes fixture testing at CPU speed which subjects each board to extreme voltages and temperatures; 24 hours of intelligent burn-in with memory exercising; and qualification in one of EMC’s 3090 CPUs. There is a one-year warranty, and EMC expects to authorise a small number of leasing firms to market the upgrades.
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