NCR Corp has a point when it suggests that the record of acquisitions in the computer business has not been a very impressive one, and one of the craziest was the acquisition by Unisys Corp of Convergent Inc back in the days when Michael Blumenthal was following a bull in a china shop race for growth by acquisition. As Convergent already did something like 40% of its business with the Burroughs side of the house, one and one added up to a lot less than two, but more incomprehensibly, it was made at a time when it was already clear that proprietary operating systems were well past their sell-by date, so that to take full charge of yet another one and forlornly try to turn it into an industry standard was Quixotic in the extreme. Nevertheless, Unisys is still doggedly struggling on with it, and it is now to offer improved interoperability between the Convergent CTOS operating system and Unix and MS-DOS-based systems. Computer Systems News says that CTOS will support Sun Microsystems’ Network File System which will enable it to share applications with systems running under MS-DOS and Unix, as well as applications developed for Microsoft’s Windows 3.0 graphical environment. Unisys is also said to be planning a distributed systems management product that will enable the management of networked CTOS workstations from a central hub. CTOS NFS is tipped for the first half of 1991, and the US trade weekly says that prices will range between $1,500 and $3,000 per server. Unisys has also announced enhancements to its TCP/IP and VT220 terminal emulation support. CTOS TCP/IP 2.0 will provide a Unix-based socket library and the CTOS VT220 2.0 will provide faster performance and file transfer functionality. Both are scheduled for first quarter availability, priced at $1,500 to $3,000 and $750 to $1,500 respectively. Improved MS-DOS integration capability is provided by CTOS PC Emulator Release 4.1, and it will enable users to run Windows software packages and CTOS for more critical network applications. That product is available now and costs $435 per server plus $529 per workstation. The ClusterShare networking environment now costs between $630 to $945 per server, and a personal computer ClusterCard offering transmission speeds up to 3.7Mbps costs $650, with a Micro Channel version slated for the first quarter.
