Project 251 – the massive $2,000m to $4,500m US Air Force contract for the supply of multi-user departmental office automation equipment – has already caused a great deal of heat amongst computer manufacturers such as DEC and Wang over the specification of System V. One company still in the running is Zenith Data Systems, which was rumoured back in April to be planning a multi-processor 80386 system for the contract (CI No 897). That system now appears ready to be launched (CI No 951), and is the work of add-on board specialists Corollary Inc of Irvine, California, which launched an 80386 version of its ATtain multi-processor at Uniforum in February (CI No 882). Corollary is understood to be working on an upgraded version of the ATtain 386/mp for Zenith, using 25MHz 80386s to deliver 15 MIPS, supporting up to 64 users, and running Xenix System V. Zenith is likely to offer the machine as a commercial product later this year, with prices starting below $20,000. Other companies still thought to be in the running for Project 251 include AT&T Co, Honeywell Bull, Lockheed Corp and Computer Sciences Corp with IBM. Meanwhile, Corollary is also working with one of the ultimate personal computer survivors, North Star Computers, on a multi-processor Unix box for the commercial market; that is also AT-bus-based, and is expected later this year.
