Michael Miracle’s trip to China in the late summer (CI No 1,986) seems to have paid off handsomely for Unix System Laboratories Inc – it has reached agreement with Peking for China to standardise on Unix. The agreement is seen to hold potential of a major windfall for Unix Labs, especially since it won out in a beauty contest with Microsoft Corp, presumably pushing Windows NT. China now intends to standardise on Unix System V.4 in government, banking, transport, communications and other areas, and the deal could result in sales of 7m copies by 1998. As well as agreements with six computer and software companies from the People’s Republic of China and with Dascom Ltd in Hong Kong, Unix Labs also signed to set up a joint venture with the Chinese Ministry ofMachinery and Electronics Industries: the new Unix System Technology China Ltd, will develop a localised version of Unix for China, to supply it to the local computer industry, and to provide training and support; it will also offer engineering and open systems design and architecture support.
