Hewlett-Packard Co is taking every opportunity to fight its way into DEC territory since it extended its workstation and minicomputer ranges last month: the latest move is to licence Boston Business Computing Ltd’s DEC-compatible software products for the HP9000 range running the HP/UX version of Unix. Hewlett systems will now support Boston’s VCL emulator of the VMS Digital Command Language, and EDT+, which emulates the VAX ETD editor. The products are designed to enable DEC users to convert to Unix systems without having to learn a new Unix text editor or commands. At the same time Boston announced OEM deals from Encore Computing, Scientific Computer System Corp and Cydrome Inc: Encore will include the products as part of its VAX compatibility suite on its Multimax machines; Scientific says the products will be used on Sun Microsystems workstation front ends to its SCS-40 entry-level Cray-alike supercomputer; and Cydrome will use the products for its Cydra 5 parallel processor, which is sold on by Prime as the MXCL 5. Other vendors using the tools include Alliant, Celerity, Convex, Gould, IBM, Multiflow and Sun Microsystems – not forgetting even DEC itself, which uses them for its Ultrix-based VAX Unix systems.
