During his keynote speech on the second day of the European Unix User Show conference, Peter Cunningham wasn’t giving any clues away about the future of Unix International Inc – bearing in mind recent speculation that the group may be considering a move to bring the reins of Unix nearer to its grasp. However he did shed some light on a few of the less esoteric goings on within the organisation. The Unix International Road Map, which was the subject of much discussion at the launch of Unix International back in February, but which subsequently seemed to get lost somewhere en route, has re-emerged with a commitment from Cunnigham that it will arrive at its destination by the end of the year. Its aim is to provide a path plan for the direction of Unix development over the next five years, with timescales for future Unix releases, enabling software and hardware developers to co-ordinate their development efforts accordingly. On the work group side, specifications for the multi-processing version of Unix are due to be set by next quarter, the design approach will be finalised by the end of the year and the product is expected to hit the streets sometime during 1991. As far as the early access programme for development versions of Unix System V.4 is concerned, it seems that 80% of those members eligible have taken up their option to receive early versions of Unix, which means that 23 major companies around the world already now have final development versions – their own products based on System V.4 should then be available within the next six months but what of the other 20% we ask? Finally Unix International has consolidated its European base, appointing Steiner Holstad from NEC Norway as its head of operations at European headquarters in Brussels.
