Ferranti Computer Systems, which made its first attempt to get into the Unix market three years ago with a West German 68020 based machine called the Unimax (CI No 345), is preparing to make a more concerted move into the market, and has been sounding companies out about a machine it could buy OEM to complement its ageing Argus family of 16-bit minicomputers. The company will continue to build and offer the Argus for as long as there is a market for it – and the machine remains big business for the Ferranti International Signal Plc subsidiary that remains the number two British-owned computer manufacturer after ICL in the UK market. Amstrad Plc’s computer business is now bigger, but it doesn’t yet manufacture its own machines. One of the companies that has been approached by Ferranti is ITL Information Technology Plc of Hemel Hempstead, which is looking for OEM contracts on the supermicros it plans to manufacture to run the fault-tolerant Unix and Pick software from Sequoia Systems Inc. As well as hoping to land the Ferranti business – for which there is strong competition – ITL hopes that one of the specialist UK Pick systems specialists will take the forthcoming machine for the Pick market.
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