An eight-processor 3090E and a workstation model at the bottom end of the 9370 line are in IBM’s product line-up for the second half of 1987, according to reports filtering out of that top-level briefing for consultants and software developers in Phoenix the other week (CI No 682). The eight processor 3090E is expected to appear by the end of October at the latest, with 6Mbyte-per-second channels and 10Gb disk drives at the same time. The issue on the channels and disks is that while the hardware technology is in place to implement them, to be used at full performance they will require new MVS/XA software and a new 3880 controller that does not yet exist, which is why many observers have been going for 4.5Mbyte-per-second channels and 7.2Gb drives. Further price performance improvements on the 3090s are expected in the same time frame. As for the 9370, as well as the promised emancipation of VM already reported, IBM is expected to top and tail the line with the workstation model, presumably using one of its several alternative 370 microprocessor implementations, around the turn of the year, and a top-end model with Extended Architecture that would provide a bridge up to the 4381. But for those impatiently awaiting the swing machine that will run System 36 software on a 38 processor, and perhaps the rack-mounted CPU for the 38 as well, the bad news is that it has apparently been put right back to early 1989.
