Hitherto a specialist Unix systems company, Unixsys SA of France is diversifying into the IBM world, and has signed to become the exclusive French distributor for Canaan Computer Corp’s VM/370 multi-user workstations, the DCS range. These machines, to be called the OD 32 family in France, runs Canaan’s Multos re-implementation of IBM’s VM/CMS, which contains parts of VM/CMS as part of a worldwide agreement between Canaan and IBM. Unixsys has guaranteed the Trumbull, Connecticut company that it will take 10 machines over the first three months, and expects its first customer to sign up at the beginning of next month. It looks to take a modest 0.5% of the French IBM market: IBM has over 2,500 installations in France with about 700 of those using VM software. Unixsys has set up a Unixsys Developpement subsidiary purely to market the Canaan machines, and will spend around UKP100,000 in advertising the product. In the UK the distributor is Databench Ltd of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, which has sold two machines, one of which was to GE’s Geisco subsidiary.
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