It’s not like IBM to get so steamed up about a non-IBM standard as to start implementing it on all its machines when there is hardly any demand for it from its core customers – and it is equally uncharacteristic for IBM to go as far out on a limb as it has with the dominant role it has taken with the Open Software Foundation. Why is IBM suddenly all fired up over Unix – and why are the likes of Unisys Corp so committed to a machine- independ ent operating system? The real answer lies in the biggest gravy train of all, the government market. Mike Faden has been looking into the Unix systems contracts on offer around the world and his report makes it clear that no major manufacturer can any longer afford to ignore the AT&T operating system. The US Government’s Unix systems purchasing frenzy is in full swing and there are currently bids totalling some 300,000 Unix machines at various stages of the procurement process, according to UK office automation software supplier Uniplex Ltd. No matter how much doubters remain sceptical of widely-quoted estimates that 75% of US Government procurements stipulate Unix, it clearly accounts for a very healthy proportion of the $17,400m 1988 Federal information technology budget. Down Under Here in the UK, Uniplex reckons that the Central Government spending on Unix systems was 0% of the UKP1,580m computer expend iture in 1986-87, 3% to 5% in 1987-88, and will be between 10 and 20% in 1988-89. Elsewhere in Europe, examples of major Unix procurements are cropping up almost everywhere: following the huge Siemens/Nixdorf contract to implement Unix systems through out employment offices, the Deutsche Bundespost is due to award a contract for 5,000 Unix systems and 7,000 MS-DOS machines this year. Events in Scandinavia have been influenced by the Swedish Government’s pioneering decision to specify Unix for administra tive systems a few years back, and major bids are now said to include 3,500 systems for the Swedish Royal Mail and 1,500 to 1,900 systems for the Norwegian Department of Defence. And Uniplex reckons that even in Australia, historically not one of the most enthusiastic markets for Unix – they’re Pick-poppers to a man down under – the Australian Tax Office wants Unix systems to support some 100,000 terminals. The most famous of the US contracts, the US Air Force’s AFCAC 251 project, which was the subject of the appeal by DEC and Wang Laboratories against the use of the System V Interface Definition as a specification, is an example of how these procurements are driving the development of technology that then becomes available elsewhere in the mar ket, comments Uniplex. In much the same way as the UK Ministry of Defence CHOTS project provided the incentive for suppliers to develop secure Unix systems that they are now looking to supply for other Government contracts and commercial applications, so the AFCAC project has proved a trendsetter for the US market. Other agencies have more or less copied the AFCAC specification for their own needs, while Uniplex itself ended up with consider ably enhanced version of its Unix product as a result of trying to meet the AFCAC requirements. A table of US contracts compiled by Uniplex makes juicy reading: The gran’daddy of them all, AFCAC 251, issued by the US Air Force now, according to Uniplex, calls for 35,000 systems with an estimated value of $4,500m (other sources estimate the value as nearer $2,000m). The contract is now expected to be awarded in November 1988; companies believed to be still in the running are Zenith Data Systems, AT&T, Plan ning Research Corp, Honeywell Bull, Lockheed Corp, and Computer Sciences Corp with IBM. The ACCS project calls for 120,000 Unix systems for the US Army; award of the contract is due as soon as July this year. A further 40,000 Unix systems (and 110,000 MS DOS systems) are also wanted for the US Army for its Supermicros contract, currently at the Request for Proposals stage and is due to be awarded in March 1989. The US Treasury is a long-standing Unix user; the Internal Revenue Service opted for severa
l hundred Zilog supermicros in the days when Zilog was a top player in the embryonic market. The follow-up acquisition, for not only the Revenue men but also for the rest of the Treasury’s 12 bureaux, is the 25,000 system Treasury Minicomputer Acquisition Contract. Currently at the Request For Information stage, the TMAC tender calls for hardware, software, integration and support services. The Federal Aviation Administration’s OATS procurement, for 43,000 systems, is at the request for proposals stage. Korea The US Air Force is also said to be handling the successor to the huge Department of Defence Desktop procurements, under which many thousands of Zenith MS-DOS micros are already in use. Desktop III calls for some 30,000 to 50,000 small (eight-user) Unix and OS/2 systems, and is at the Request For Information stage (during which the agency produces a wish list and solicits com ments from the industry). Award of the pact is due in July 1989. Other procurements underway include MAC C2 IPS, the Military Airlift Command’s Command and Control Information Processing System from the US Air Force, due for award October 1988 and encompassing some 6,400 Unix systems worth perhaps $200m. The US Air Force wants 58 Unix systems initially, some 600 eventually, for its WPAFB contract expected to be awarded this month. The US/South Korean combined Forces Command is due to award its TACCIMS, Theater Automated Command and Control Information Man agement System, contract for 400 systems in September this year. And the Department of State wants 1,400 systems for its MS-DOS contract due for award January 1989.
