The current wealth of Unix applications created by the rush to rewrite packages originally developed for proprietary architectures to run under Unix, has forced manufacturers to reverse the trend and start pillaging the Unix base for additional proprietary offerings. One such example is the Maidenhead-based software house Powerscourt Ltd, which plans to run the Unix-based Chameleon accounting package developed by its parent company, Tetra Business Systems, on IBM’s AS/400 range of small mainframe computers by the first quarter of next year. To this end, and in what appears to be a case of favoured treatment, the company claims that it has now received a formal commitment from IBM for the early delivery of a C compiler for the OS/400 operating system – a product which will not be available from IBM on a general basis until November. Overall, the decision represents the first serious move into the IBM market by Powerscourt, which was set up as an independent systems integrator within the Tetra Business Systems group in December 1987; the company now employs 45 staff, and reported a turnover last year of UKP5m. The 250 strong parent which saw a turnover last year of UKP18m, also contains FocalPoint Education, Programming, and Engineering divisions.
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