Previewed at the time of launch of the new generation of top-end mainframes, Unisys Corp’s clustering release of the OS1100 operating system has now been launched as the General Purpose Transaction System. The 2200 configurations on which it runs are now the Gladiator Series models, consisting of up to four 2200/400 or 2200/600ES mainframes clustered to share common access to a single database which is duplexed. The Gladiator systems – consisting of 24 processors when four 2200/600s are clustered – are claimed to provide better than 99.99% availability, and are rated at from 20 to nearly 3,000 transactions per second. The Gladiator systems use the fault-tolerant Unisys Record Lock Processor to co-ordinate multi-host access to records in the shared database – it is already in use at Air France and Lufthansa using a new release of the UDS database management system. Prices go from $3m and $50m, and while the machines should retain the loyalty of existing 1100 and 2200 users, particularly among airlines and banks, for several more years, they are not likely to do much to build base for Unisys. They ship in the autumn when Unisys launches new 2200 models. IBM’s new Sysplex Timer will provide a similar clustering capability for up to eight ES/9000s.
