As well as the new E95 fourway processor, IBM Corp’s AS/400 announcement today is expected to include an 8Gb disk drive that attaches to the low-end 9402s and the ability to attach up to 58 screens; Token Ring performance improved by a fac-tor of three and a new 1.2Gb cartridge tape drive; IBM is finally delivering extensive graphical user interface support that includes enhanced data stream, pull-down menus and scroll bars; the 9337 RAID-5 device, planned to ship this year, before the competition, has up to seven 3.5 drives of 970Mb each, delivering 5.8Gb in RAID mode, 6.8Gb as a conventional system; the CODE/400 OS/2-based development environment now supports both RPG and Cobol; the Application Business Systems unit tends to fulfill statements of direction within 12 months, so 1993 should see Posix-compliance and DCE support; unlike other divisions, it has had its budget increased by about 50% which may explain why the new OS/400 is three months ahead of schedule and has brought other things forward.
