Mannesmann Information Systems duly announced its family of Unix machines bought OEM from Arix Inc last week – and also included hardware and software from Computer Consoles Inc. The Computer Consoles box will be marketed as the Mannesmann 9405, and will be offered running the Waltham, Massachusetts company’s LegalOfficePower software, which is designed for office automation in the legal profession. Above that will be the Arix machines, re-named the 9425, supporting 48 users; the 9435, for 96 users; and the 9455 for 256 users. Mannesman managing director Phil Claydon says that the multiple bus and multi processor technology of the Arix boxes deals with the common Unix bottleneck problems, but are not cost-effective when translated to systems with fewer numbers of users. Hence the company will stick with its proprietary 9100 series micros for systems up to 32 users – it can directly connect the two ranges for file and resource sharing, and it says that its software, aimed at the legal and manufacturing markets, has been converted to run under both environments. Installations will begin in the last quarter of this year.
