Open Services Ltd, the Isleworth, Middlesex-based company that is marketing Liant Software Inc’s LPI Unix RPG II compiler, enabling IBM System 36 users to migrate applications to the AIX Unix environment, is now readying an Intel Corp iAPX-86 software emulator compatible with the Open Software Foundation’s AES Application Environment Specification. Open Services says its Silicon Emulation Executive will enable iAPX-86 Unix applications that comply with the Intel Binary Compatibility Specification Issue 2 – IBCS 2 – for example those that run under Santa Cruz Operation Inc’s Unix, to execute on Application Environment Specification-compliant systems, such as IBM Corp’s RS/6000 and Hewlett-Packard Co’s 9000 series systems, without re-compilation. Open Services originally developed the emulator as a way of offering its own software on a wider variety of systems, but had so much interest that it decided to productise the thing. Beta test versions of the emulator should be around by May, with full product release set for August. It will be priced from around UKP850.
