ICL Plc is set to announce a technology transfer agreement with Mountain View, California-based Pyramid Technology Corp that will result in Pyramid’s three-schema, symmetric multiprocessing bus architecture being incorporated into new ICL SuperSparc-based machines expected in 1994. Today’s issue of Unigram.X reports that the new machines will come in well above ICL’s existing high end, the eight-way DRS 6000 Level 700 which supports 500 users. Under the agreement, ICL also gets access to Pyramid’s operating system technology. The deal, said by sources to be very valuable to Pyramid, will also involve ICL taking Pyramid’s high-end MIServer ES machines under an OEM agreement this follows on from an informal Pyramid-ICL sales teaming that has been operating in the UK for the last few months. Although Pyramid’s architecture is based on the MIPS Technologies Inc R-series RISC, both companies use Unix System V.4. Peter Stuart, ICL’s vice-president of business development, comments that the OEM agreement will fulfill occasional specific customer requirements. Although the bulk of ICL’s Unix systems revenue comes from its mid-range Unix servers, Stuart says it hopes to become a significant player at the high end when when the new machines arrive. Pyramid claims that its three-bus architecture – with separate CPU, memory and input-output buses – is unique.
