IBM clearly feels exceedingly uncomfortable having to buy what is clearly a strategic computer its only faulttolerant offering OEM, and does everything it can to make the machines it buys its own. The machines it gets from Stratus Computer Inc have to be rewired so that they conform to the wiring colour codes IBM engineers understand, and when it comes to key software, like SNA support, rather than take what Stratus has already developed, it develops its own such reinventing of the wheel makes little sense to Stratus, and the company now licences some of the software back. System/88 is what IBM calls the Stratus XA2000s, and the company has just announced availability of Release 6 of the SNA licensed programs and the System/88 Release 6 SNA Token-Ring Link Manager. System/88 Release 6 SNA offers new support for Token-Ring, and the Communications and Systems Management licensed program has been enhanced to support multiple hosts. The System/88 Release 6 SNA Token-Ring Link Manager provides a software interface to the System/88 Token-Ring local net. Graduated costs for group 5 go from $1,400 to $4,930; group 10 charges from $1,755 to $6,160; 20 from $2,505 to $8,800; group 30 charges start at $3,130 and rise to $11,000; group 40 range between $3,755 and $13,200.
