There is a large question mark hanging over IBM Corp and Compagnie des Machines Bull SA’s future development plans. Bull is to supply dual PowerPC processor boards with external secondary cache, the multiprocessing system bus, Data Crossbar Switch technology and some AIX enhancements to IBM, but its development of the promised six-way and eight-way Pegasus technology is not yet complete. Acceptable performance scaling between four and eight processors, which is said to be dependent largely on AIX optimisation, has yet to be achieved and other AIX tuning is needed. A four-way system delivers around three times the uniprocessor performance, but with eight processors, it currently said to offer only five times uniprocessor performance. Bull is also working on Mississippi technology to cluster symmetric multiprocessing systems together and a highly-scalable Interconnect Serial Link for use beyond. It is not clear which, if any of these technologies IBM will adopt or co-develop with Bull. Bull has said it may co-operate on the multiprocessing implementation of IBM’s high-availability HACMP/6000, a piece of code said to be critical for commercial users that both firms will require, and which is already promised for AIX 4.1.1, though not until sometime next year. Now that Bull has its own functional RS/6000 equivalents and an OEM licence for AIX, it is also unclear whether it will continue to take IBM machines OEM as its DPX/20s. Bull has made it clear that its existing DPX/20s will become obsolete during 1995 as Escalas are introduced. It expects to ship between 4,000 and 5,000 systems next year, according to International Data Corp, similar to this year’s DPX/20 shipments. It says it has also made no decision on whether to offer the RS/6000 division’s entry-level 40P Power Personal Systems-developed workstation, but has signed for Motorola Inc’s low-end PowerStack single-user desktop and server technology. Motorola, meanwhile, is offering Escala at the high end of its PowerStack line, and IBM’s other OEM customer Wang Laboratories Inc is also offering the symmetric multiprocessing technology.
