IBM Corp has begun briefing key integrators and software developers on its enterprise-wide client-server strategy. According to Computer Reseller News, the new generation machines will be highly parallel systems using hundreds rather than thousands of processors in massively parallel configurations. The machines may be demonstrated in November, but shipments are unlikely to begin before next year. Core to the strategy is the ability to use multiple operating systems and IBM is believed to be developing a new version of AIX/ESA that will run on both the RS/6000 workstations and highly-parallel servers. IBM has yet to say when the new operating system will ship, but users will be able to tie in the PowerPC, providing a single operating system from the desktop throough departmental servers to highly-parallel enterprise servers. The new machines will run MVS, enabling users to maintain mainframe databases and regardless of whether the operating system is MVS or AIX, both will act as servers for OS/2-based desktops. Further, that integration is to be made more seamless over the coming year when IBM will begin merging OS/2 and AIX, enabling them to use the same database and share application development tools. The chip technology is said to come from IBM’s Yorktown Heights research centre, and the report suggests that it will be scalable from deskside towers to supercomputers, and IBM may target the Cray Research Inc market. Nonetheless, critics say that getting to market in a timely manner may be difficult, and in addition to competition from the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co and NCR Corp, there is widespread concern that proprietary machines like IBM’s AS/400 will supplant the mainframe before IBM can establish cost-effective highly-parallel systems. Some analysts express concern that the new systems will be less secure and incapable of doing donkey work like batch processing. Meantime, sources in the UK say that IBM’s highly-parallel computer system will come with 16 boards per rack and 32 engines per board, 10 MIPS per engine. MVS, believe it or not, will run out of ROM and the chips, contrary to the report in Computer Reseller News, will be based on CMOS technology and sourced from Intel Corp.
