Unisys Corp will today announce what it’s calling a CMP or Cellular Multiprocessing server that will incorporate mainframe technologies including partitioning and I/O in its 32-way Intel Corp-based Windows NT box. Not expected to be available until the second half of next year, Unisys is pitching the system as the first to apply traditional mainframe techniques to commodity components. Later this year up clusters of up to ten of Unisys’s 32-way servers will be possible with the company’s Big Bertha technology. We’re still waiting for the company to spell out a new mission/positioning statement for itself under its new CEO Larry Weinbach (CI No 3,365), who recently told Merrill Lynch & Co analysts that services will be the key to attracting new customers. Unisys has just announced a contract to supply half of Dell Computer Corp’s worldwide network integration, planning, and desktop services. It told the brokerage it’s now packaging intellectual property from its service projects into solutions to be sold at higher margins. Twenty-four of these packages account for 50% of services revenue and 75% of gross margin. Weinbach says he expects to grow revenue in double digits and earnings twice as fast by 2001. It’s re-engineering using Oracle Applications internally which it claims will reduce the number of internal control systems it uses from over 300 to 16. Unisys’ debt is now $1.186bn, just shy of Weinbach’s goal of $1bn. In addition to restructuring products around Intel-based enterprise servers – it’s sold $2bn of its Unix/NT ClearPath servers – and services Merrill Lynch notes Weinbach has outlined a number of initiatives that are designed to get Unisys employees smiling again, including new 401k plan, a stock purchase program, casual dress code, and improved travel conditions.
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