Hitachi Data Systems Ltd took its first step into the Unix world yesterday and launched the OSF/1 operating system for its GX and EX series IBMulators. To be an efficient Unix server, the mainframe needs a network co-processor front-end, and despite its agreements with Hewlett-Packard Co on the Precision Architecture RISC, Hitachi has chosen to use a Sun Microsystems Inc Sparc-based machine in this role, fitted with suitable direct channel-attach and Ethernet boards. This, when combined with the OSF/1 operating system implementation dubbed HI-OSF/1-M, will be sold as the Osiris Superserver. HI-OSF/1-M will run stand-alone, under VM or in a partition alongside MVS on the Hitachi machines. The company says that it will not initially be aiming at the unfamiliar Unix community, instead it has set its sights on its existing customers, and IBM mainframe sites, which are increasingly feeling the push towards Unix. The company will add Network Data Management Server software in around six months – this will provide network back-up, management and recovery, and will be followed, during the first half of next year, by a database server based on Oracle Corp technology. Finally the company is promising transaction processing software at a future, unspecified date. The Sparc-based Network Co-Processor costs between $160,000 and $180,000; HI-OSF/1-M pricing is based on IBM’s licence group methodology and costs between $2,800 and $25,000.
