Market researcher International Data Corp forecast that the European market for massively parallel and scalable parallel processing systems would more than 70% in value in 1995 to $460m. IBM Corp heads the pack with its RS/6000 SP systems, reckoned to have earned $75m, a clear $30m more than the next nearest vendor Silicon Graphics Inc with its Power Challenge systems, which earned it $45m. Tandem Computers Inc took $35m, Pyramid Technology Corp $25m, AT&T Corp $20m, nCube Corp and Meiko Scientific Ltd $8m each. The remaining $244m – more than 50% of the market – is accounted for by other vendors earning each doing less than $6m. Both commercial and technical markets grew substantially, it says, though with the exception of large customised query and database installations, commercial sales are being held back by lack of applications support, it feels. Data mining, decision support systems and video servers are expected to begin driving sales over the next couple of years. It notes the rising use of clustered symmetric multiprocessing systems as massively parallel sites and expects this trend to gather pace, and to account for 80% of high-end systems within five years. Like the ButlerBloor report on Parallel Database Technology International Data believes that as the market matures the major vendors will gain a stronger foothold at the expense of the smaller concerns. IBM (SP2) and Tandem (Himalaya) have been chief winners this year, AT&T is losing some ground in its transition to the new WorldMark lines. At the other end of the market it says Meiko is running out of steam – and it forecasts more fadeouts.
