NatSemi’s National Advanced Systems unit has ignored Hitachi’s efforts to do an IBM-compatible mainframe Unix for its IBMulators that are marketed in the US and Europe by NAS, and has instead turned to Sun Microsystems Inc, Mountain View. The two companies have agreed to do an implementation of Sun’s SunOS converged Berkeley 4.2BSD and AT&T System V Unix with its Network File System and other communications software for the large IBM-compatible mainframes. The agreement forms the basis for developing applications compatibility between NAS mainframes and Sun workstations using Sun’s Open Systems Network and a common operating system based on SunOS, says Sun. The pair will promote the use of the environment as a standard software platform within the technical computing industry. NAS sees it as a landmark decision – the first time two major data processing suppliers have agreed to develop and support a single open operating system and communications effort. Both companies are members of the non-profit Corporation for Open Systems co-operative. There is as yet no word on whether the new Unix will run native or under VM; NAS presumably ignored Hitachi’s Unix effort and chose to go with Sun because of the widespread penetration of SunOS in technical markets.
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