To meet the challenge coming from the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co and Sequent Computer Systems Inc in the commercial Unix marketplace, Pyramid Technology Corp needs to make substantial changes to its business, according to company insiders. In the long-term, the firm will be too small to carry on doing its own hardware research and development, the same sources say, and is sure to buy in and bolt together most of the components that it previously manufactured for its proprietary RISC-based T Series and MIPS Computer Systems Inc R Series-based S Series server systems. Claims that the firm is experiencing severe difficulties may be somewhat overstated, with Pyramid UK having recently sold five systems to the UK’s Nottingham City Hospital, supporting 4,000 users on an Oracle-based hospital information support service, making it the largest Pyramid user site in Europe. Pyramid is expected to make a transition to what observers regard as its main asset and area of expertise, the Unix System V.4 system software implementation it offers.
