IBM and DEC have been awarded server contracts by General Motors Co via its Electronic Data Systems Corp subsidiary, beating a joint bid by Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc. The two companies are to supply servers for General Motors’ C4 vehicle design and factory automation programme, but they first had to agree that the RS/6000 and DEC’s System Server would be compatible both with each other and with existing design workstations from Hewlett-Packard and Sun. EDS is the systems integrator for the C4 project, and according to Electronic News, it insisted that IBM and DEC share in the cost of architecture development, although they will work independently. The value of the contract has still to be specified, and a systems integration team is now drawing up specifications. The C4 programme will standardise computer-aided design, engineering, manufacturing as well as computer integrated manufacturing and office automation applications.
