As well as OSF/1 Unix, Digital Equipment Corp’s Alpha AXP machines will also support the deadly rival, Unix System V.4 at least in Europe. Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA, DEC’s European Alpha partner, will put System V up on the Alpha machines it is to resell under its own name from next May. Olivetti vice-chairman Elserino Piol indicated that the Italian firm may also move Destiny – Unix System V.4.2 – as well as UnixWare on its Alpha hardware in due course. DEC made no mention of the Unix System V.4 tie-up in the US (except in pre-launch analysts’ briefings), although Peter Miller, director of Alpha AXP business for DEC Europe, admitted all options were being considered. DEC hasn’t decided whether it will sell Unix System V.4 itself, he said, but it will bring Unix System V.4 applications to market. Both DEC and Olivetti hung out warning flags for their other CPU architectures. DEC, which will make it easy for users of dead-end systems to move to Alpha, says it is still committed to delivering RISC/Ultrix systems based on the MIPS Technologies Inc R4000 processor next year. But to help users make the transition from VAX architectures to Alpha, the company is expected to unveil 35 open systems migration centres around the world at next week’s Open Forum conference in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Pyramid

Meanwhile, Olivetti’s relationship with OEM supplier Pyramid Technology Corp is given just two or three years more years of life. When the high-end MIPS R3000-based Pyramid servers that Olivetti re-badges as the LSX 6500 series run out of steam, Piol said Olivetti will not step up to future generations of MIPS chips. Other MIPS RISC-based systems in Olivetti’s stable such as the M700-10 look destined to go the same way. Indeed, by 1994, Olivetti expects to be marketing Alpha systems built to its own design. Olivetti will continue to supply Hitachi Ltd mainframes in Italy, though it expects top-of-the-range Alpha systems to take sales away from the Japanese kit. Olivetti, which supplies personal computers to DEC, expects Alpha and Intel Corp processors will each account for 35% of its hardware sales from 1995, computer printers will account for 20% and other products 10%. DEC currently has a 4.2% stake in Olivetti, due to rise to 10.3% in 1994.