Munich, Germany-based Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG is set to launch new machines in its RM line of Unix System V.4 mid-range systems at the Cebit Hannover Fair at the end of March. New machines include the RM400 Model 10, using the 100MHz internal, 50MHz external MIPS R4000SC processor, and the RM600 model 25 multiprocessor, which uses from two to 12 R3000A RISC processors: both run Siemens Nixdorf’s Sinix V5.41 implementation of Unix, and should be generally available in the second quarter. An R4000SC multiprocessor is also under development, and should be out in the third quarter. The company is also to market Silicon Graphics Inc’s R4000SC-based RW450 workstation using the Irix V.4 operating system. On the iAPX-86 side, the PCE-5S Pentium machine will be shown: it is currently running at 50MHz, but is eventually intended to be a 66MHz machine – all being well at Intel Corp. The PCE-5S will include built-in server features such as dual SCSI-2, on-board EISA-Ethernet, software-controlled power on-power off and security. Also out at Hannover will be a new version of Siemens Nixdorf’s UTM distributed transaction monitor for Unix, back-up and spool programs, and a modularised version of the Sinix operating system for use on personal computers. Siemens Nixdorf has spent years attempting to unify conflicting technology inherited when Siemens AG, Siemens Nixdorf’s parent company, fused its Data and Information Systems Group with Nixdorf Computer AG. It now seems resigned to abandoning further developments on the proprietary Quattro range and 680X0-based Targon systems it inherited from the Nixdorf side of the business, as well as its mid-range iAPX-86-based MX line, in favour of the MIPS-based RM Unix products. A third of Siemens Nixdorf’s revenue still comes from mainframes, and 18 new 7.500 machines running the enhanced BS2000/OSD1 operating system promised to be Posix-compliant and running the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment by the end of 1994 – will also emerge at Hannover. It has also developed FHS-Doors, a mainframe graphical user interface for interoperability with MS-DOS, Unix and Windows applications.
