Sony Corp and NEC Corp have recreated the Advanced Computing Environment initiative by rallying a string of other vendors tied to the MIPS Technologies Inc RISCs to join what they call the Open Computing Environment for MIPS Platform, which they defined in May this year. The aim is to create a standard Japanese language system environment for workstations. The six new members are Sanyo Electric Corp, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Sumitomo Electric Industries Co, Nippon Silicon Graphics Ltd, Olivetti Corp of Japan Ltd and Pyramid Technology Corp. In addition to the Common Japanese Application Binary Interface (OCMP-ABI) agreed on in May this year, the OCMP has set two new standards, the OCMP-3D Protocol for three-dimensional graphics functions and the OCMP APbus specification for input-output bus hardware and software. The OSMP-3D protocol is based on Silicon Graphics’ Open GL library software. Members have agreed to implement the OCMP-ABI specification, and will implement OCMP-3D if using three-dimensional graphics. Support of the OCMP-AP bus is optional. The APbus conforms to the Euroboard specification, with a compact size of 3.9 by 6.3; its 32-bit synchronous bus provides high-speed transfer to a maximum of 110M-bytes per second. NEC will be the first to release OCMP-compatible products in December, followed by Sony and Sanyo Electric in mid-1993, Olivetti in third quarter 1993, on its M-700 system, and Silicon Graphics probably late in 1993. Dr Ross Bott, vice-president and chief technical officer of Pyramid’s US parent, emphasised that for Pyramid, involved primarily in the business market, three-dimensional graphics and input-output bus were not big issues, but that binary standards were, and work had already been done with Oracle Corp and SAS Institute Inc to bring them on to an OCMP-compatible system. Organisations such as Unix International Inc and Unix System Laboratories Inc welcomed the extension of the group, since the OCMP-ABI is based on work done in their Japanese localisation Special Interest Group and Internationalisation Workgroups. According to Yano Research statistics quoted at the announcement, the OCMP group members have 32.7% of the Japanese workstation market, which stood at 106,320 units last year, and would like to increase this share to 50%. This compares with Sun Microsystems Inc, individual market leader with 25.8% and Hewlett-Packard Co with 16.7%. Sony and Pyramid were instrumental in the formation of the MIPS System V Special Interest Group two years ago; however Sony has yet to implement Unix System V.4 fully on its workstations, that version currently being in the Early Access stage, according to Dr Toshitada Doi, Director and head of the Sony Workstation Division.
