Datapoint Corp, San Antonio, Texas, is plunging into Unix with a major OEM deal with tiny Norwegian computer manufacturer NCI Norsk Computer Industri A/S, reports today’s edition of our sister paper Unigram/X. The announcement will be made at Uniforum in Dallas next week. Datapoint says it has been working with the 45-employee company for some time, and is to take 2,400 of the Motorola 68030-based multiprocessor systems under a three year OEM agreement. The deal, worth in the region of $20m, also involves the supply of software application systems from Scanvest Ring, Oslo, which owns 36% of NCI. The NCI 2001 is a loosely coupled modular system, with standalone units supporting up to 80 users and including a maximum of four 68030 application processors, two file processors and four terminal processors, all 68020-based. Communications within each module take place on a VMEbus, and individual cabinets can be connected together through a high speed local area network, which according to NCI allows a dozen systems without significant performance degradation. Software is Unix System V.3. NCI is currently producing around 25 machines per month at its Sandnes manufacturing plant, but is planning a big expansion as a result of the deal; although Datapoint says it will also be manufacturing machines. The official launch will be at the Hannover Fair in March, and NCI is currently looking for distributors and OEM customers in Europe. Datapoint expects to sell the machines in 30 different countries. However its previous attempt to move into the Unix market via an OEM deal with and investment in Charles River Data Systems in 1984 (CI No 31) sank without trace.
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