The Hitachi Data Systems joint venture of Hitachi Ltd and Electronic Data Systems Corp is expected to unveil the five and six processor models of its top-end EX line of IBMulators next month, Electronic News reports. The machines are expected to appear as the EX-520 and EX-620, with a delivery date of second quarter 1992, but observers say that performance will remain a little behind that offered by IBM Corp and Amdahl Corp with their biggest mainframes – Amdahl plans to start shipping an eight-way processor at the same time as Hitachi ships the EX-620. Performance for the Hitachi machines is estimated at 184 MIPS and 214 MIPS, against 193 MIPS and 225 MIPS for the equivalent IBM Summit models and 248 MIPS for the eight-way Amdahl 5995-8650M machine. Annex Research Inc, Phoenix, reckons that Amdahl’s share of installed mainframe MIPS last year rose to 29%, cutting IBM back to 67% and leaving Hitachi flat at 4%.
