Unix running on a mainframe is still a rarity, so it is noteworthy that AT&T-Philips Telecommunications NV has spent UKP3.8m on such an installation. The Netherlands-based 50-50 joint venture, formed to ease AT&T’s penetration of the European market, has installed a dual processor Amdahl 5890-200 running the UTS/580 implementation of Unix System V, and will use it at the company’s new product development and production centre at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, from where AT&T is currently trying to convince Europeans of the benefits of the Europeanised Number 5ESS-PRX switching system for telephone exchanges. The 5890-200, along with two 470E front-end processors and 25Gb of 6380 disk storage brings AT&T-Philips’ investment in the centre up to UKP17m, and it is intended that up to 600 people will be employed at the base by 1990.
