Mainframes based on CMOS technology and moderately parallel architecture seem to be coming into fashion. No sooner has IBM Corp has lifted the veil on its plans for a parallel query and parallel transaction system than NEC Corp follows with its own announcement, with the NEC Acos family of mainframes, which should be ready by the end of 1994, Computerwoche reports. The financial reality for the Japanese company is that large computer technology is no longer financially viable for the user. NEC reported a net loss equivalent to $85m for the half year to September compared to a profit of $40m for the same half year period the year before. At the heart of the NEC development effort is the single chip CMOS implementation of the basic ACOS CPU codenamed Noah. In a single shared memory configuration, up to 32 CPUs can be put together to create a moderately parallel computer. In the maximum configuration the new mainframe can roughly double the performance of the current top range Acos Series 3800 – and the price-performance is 10 times more favourable. In addition, up to 16 of these machines can be connected in a cluster that enables the user to achieve global time allocation, improved balancing of the workload and management of batch jobs. Where IBM will initially offer only parallel DB2 database and CICS transaction processing add-on systems for MVS mainframes, NEC reckons it will be able to go straight to moderately parallel mainframes that run the full gamut of ACOS – GCOS 8 – applications – database, on-line, transaction and batch. In order to fulfil these promises it will offer three software tools: Parallel SQL, Parallel OLTP, and Parallel Batch. With the middleware Diosa – Distributed and Integrated Operating System for Applications – the user should be in the position to join parallel systems together in a remote management network modelling a single computer system. The new computer will be fully compatible with ACOS software and hardware. NEC will offer three sizes – a small model with four processors this year, with the mid and top range models following in 1995 and supporting between 16 and 32 CPUs.
