By Dan Jones
The Santa Cruz Operation Inc claims that its new UnixWare 7.1 Data Center operating system is a stepping stone to the æMontereyÆ 64-bit Unix implementation for Merced it is developing with IBM Corp. SCO says that the new product has features that will appear in the first cuts of Monterey. Data Center Edition was launched yesterday at a Cebit press conference, and positioned by SCO CEO Doug Michels as the first operating system to bring volume economics to the data center.
SCO partners at the launch included Intel Corp, Sequent Computer Systems Inc, IBM Corp, ICL Plc and Unisys Corp. Launched a day after Intel announced plans for its first standard high volume eight way servers using the Profusion chipset SCO said its new operating system supports 8 CPUs with 32Gbs of memory in its standard form and can scale up to 32 way symmetric multi-processing (SMP) with 64Gb of memory.
SCO is offering support for six node clustering now and promising 12 node clustering in the summer. The software includes the promised WebTop browser-based front-end from SCO’s Tarantella division, allowing system administrators access from any web-enable device. SCO says that any browser and wen applications can be used with WebTop. SCO has also added network management features to the software through a new event logging system. The many disparate log files gathered up by Unix have been centralized into a single database, where results can be collated and analyzed using simple query language reports.
The company is expecting to offer 64Gb as standard for its UnixWare product in 2001, along with 32 way SMP and 99.995% uptime performance. By that time, Unixware is expected to be the 32-bit operating system of the Monterey range. Michels claims that Monterey – which will see IBM, SCO and Sequent gene-splicing their Unix offerings to offer one 64-bit and one 32-bit OS optimized for the Intel IA-64 architecture, will give the firms a 50% share of the Unix market.
IBM says that the Monterey 64-bit kernel is expected to run on IA-64 Merced simulator in June or July. Meanwhile, Sequent is working on its version of SCOÆs OS, Unixware PXK for release this year. The firm promises binary compatibility with current SCO operating systems. Compaq says it will support both Monteray and its own 64-bit Tru64 Unix, and leave it to customers to decide which they want.
Shipping immediately, UnixWare 7.1 Data Center Edition costs $10,000, licensed out of the box for 150 users.
