The West German Bundesanstalt fur Arbeit – Federal Labour Office – has awarded Nixdorf Computer AG its largest-ever contract – and probably the biggest contract for Unix systems ever placed in Europe. The order, worth about $165m over three years, tops Nixdorf’s $100m-plus point of sale systems contract with Montgomery Ward last year, and requires the Paderborner to install Targon/32 68000-family fault-tolerant Unix machines derived from the original design from defunct Auragen Corp, in 90 main labour exchanges throughout the Federal Republic. The machines, which will support databases of employment opportunities compiled using the Reflex relational database manager, will support 12,000 job counsellors helping West Germany’s unemployed to find work. The installation programme is to be completed by 1990.
