NCR Corp was the winner of the bidding to become the partner of South Korea in its efforts to develop a standard national computer that would be widely used in ministries and the public sector, and has been training Koreans on its 3600 mid-range Unix system. Now, following relaxation of US export restrictions, NCR has been able to modify the five- year agreement to include its high-end Teradata-derived WorldMark 5100 massively parallel machines, which consist of an array of Pentium processors. The recipients are a consortium of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Hyundai Electronics Industries Co and the Seoul National University’s Research Institute of Advanced Computer Technology, which represents the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy. The two manufacturers are free to sell the machines everywhere except the US, Western Europe, Japan and Australia, with China, Eastern Europe and Russia likely target markets. The Koreans also have exclusive rights to sell the computers in their own country. NCR estimates that the pair could sell over $1,000m of NCR- designed computers over the next four years, on which it will be paid undisclosed royalties. The Koreans reportedly estimate they will export about $200m more in computers by the end of the decade thanks to the agreement, which was reached because Korea currently spends some $300m a year to import large computers and wants to make them.
