DEC’s VAX 9000, due to be announced today, is being rushed out before all DEC’s usual beta testing, and the finished operating system for the machine will not be ready until the middle of next year, when the 9000400 multiprocessor models are due to ship. According to Electronic News the machine needs a new release of VMS because of the additional support for vector processing included in the VAX 9000. The non-expandable single processor VAX 9000 Model 210 is expected to start shipping in the first quarter of next year, and it is these users that are seen as essentially beta test customers for the new VMS release. The Model 400 multiprocessors are not expected to be available until the start of the company’s next fiscal year in July 1990 with volume shipments following in the second quarter, which suggests that the new VAX 9000s will do little for DEC’s figures this fiscal. The VAX 9000 is seen primarily as a vehicle to enable DEC to hold onto its MIPS-starved top-end user base.
