Unisys Corp is ready with its third desktop version of one of its large processors, this time the System 80 small mainframe that runs the OS/3 operating system that first saw the light of day on the Univac 90/30 back in the early 1970s, extended with the launch of the System 80 to pick up Sperry’s base of Escort users on its Intel 8080-based BC/7 line. The System 80 now lines up against IBM’s AS/400, and Unisys has created a System 80 Model 7E, which is actually designed for the desktop, but does use the SCAMP chip set that first saw the light of day in the Micro A desktop mainframe that runs the MCP/AS operating system. Some fairly interesting things are clearly going on under the hood of the Model 7E, because the System 80 is basic ally a 16-bit machine, whereas the SCAMP implements the 48-bit architecture of the A-series. The machine is expected to exe cute between 10,000 and 15,000 transactions per hour on the Unisys version of IBM’s RAMP-C benchmark – lining it up against the AS/400 B30 and B40 models and DEC’s just-superseded MicroVAX 3500 and 3600, and offering twice the performance of the low-end System 80 Model 4. The Linc and Mapper applications generators will be supported when the box arrives, but small System 80 users wanting to upgrade have a long wait – the machine will not start shipping until first quarter 1990. The machine will cost $70,000 with 8Mb memory, three input-output controllers, a colour personal computer console, and diagnostic software. The System Platform Software, with transaction processing monitor and communicati ons programs suite another $30,600.
