A source within in Digital Equipment Corp that didn’t want to be quoted said that hand in hand with the announcement of more Alpha RISC licensees – expected soon – DEC would also likely move to support Unix System Laboratories Inc’s Unix System V.4, today’s edition of our sister paper Unigram.X reports. The deal, still being cut with firms in the US, Europe and Japan, is shaping up as some kind of cross-licensing initiative with the partner getting rights to use, manufacture or resell Alpha products in return for putting System V.4 on to the RISC to serve markets in each of those locations. If this pans out into formal relationships – they are still being worked on – then DEC would also likely offer System V.4 alongside VMS, OSF/1 and Microsoft Corp NT on its Alpha machines. Last week’s gossip was that Sparc licensees Fujitsu Ltd and LSI Logic Corp have been talking to DEC about making Alpha. Before any additional Alpha licensees are revealed, DEC says it has a major VAX launch.
