ICL Plc is set to unveil its own heterogeneous multiprocessing strategy towards the end of June that will deliver multiple operating system support on one system, our sister publication UnigramX reports. As if following the furrow already plowed by Unisys Corp and its mainframe-Unix-Windows NT-enabled ClearPath systems (CI No 2,876), it is expected to combine a VME mainframe processor and a high-speed Intel Corp iAPX-86 processor in the same box. Officially ICL refuses either confirm or deny it, but the UK systems and services company, 84%-owned by Fujitsu Ltd, has substantial presence in vertical markets for which the systems are said to be ideally suited. The company is also understood to have been casting around for a Non-Uniform Memory Architecture. ICL is said to have had increasing difficulties persuading independent software vendors to write applications for its Series 39 mainframes and coupled with the proprietary nature and expense of mainframe chip sets sees convergence between systems as inevitable. It recently undertook a radical restructuring, putting its volume products business, which sells personal computers and iAPX-86 and Unix servers into a separate joint venture with parent Fujitsu (CI No 2,861). It is planning to raise 200m British pounds in a rights issue in June, completely underwritten by Fujitsu.
