IBM yesterday duly unveiled its AIX/370 mainframe Unix successor to the IX/370 version – but the big disappointments are that unlike Amdahl Corp’s UTS Unix, it still runs only as a guest under VM rather than native, and it will not be available until next March. A major switch from IX/370, which required a Series 1 front-end to support the ASCII terminals that are essential to Unix, AIX/370 is designed to be used with AIX/370 workstations, which at present can be either Personal System/2 Model 80s under AIX/PS2, or RT Personals. Alternatively, terminals can be MS-DOS personal computers connected to the mainframe via a local area network, using an AIX Access for PC-DOS Computers facility. Announced with AIX/370 is a mainframe version of Sun Microsystems’ Network File System. IBM also commends use of the operating system with the 3090 Vector Facility, which is fully supported by AIX/370 on any VM system that supports the Facility. IBM also promised support for the VS Fortran Compiler/Library and Engineering/Scientific Subroutine Library on AIX/370, but gave no dates. The company also announced the AIX Family Definition, providing consistent screen formats, commands, menus, and application interfaces across the AIX product line with the aim of giving users flexibility in developing AIX applications. AIX/370 is supported under VM across all 370s from the 9370 to the 3090: it will be offered on a one-time charge of $27,000 on Group 10 models – the low-end 9370s, $51,000 on Group 20; $75,000 on Group 30 – mainly 4381s; $144,000 on the 3090s; alternatively, it is $3,000 a month on all processors. Network File System will cost a one-time $2,400 to $9,600 according to CPU size, or licence for $200 a month. Both arrive in March 1989.
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