Dixons Group Plc’s Dixons Stores Group will implement what it claims is the UK’s largest distributed Unix network, involving up to 850 of Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme’s 80486-based PCD personal computers running Santa Cruz Unix: the deal, worth UKP10m, involves the installation of the PCs in Currys and Dixons stores throughout the country, connected to the company’s central IBM 3090 in Stevenage via X.25 and TCP/IP wide area network; the eventual aim is to provide in-store terminals for staff, providing product, stock and service information, and sending back sales data to the branch computer, and then by batch delivery to the mainframe; in the meantime, Siemens Nixdorf will integrate the existing 8812 point of sale terminals at use in both Currys and Dixons stores; Dixons chose the Ingres database and forms-based 4GL and pilot systems have been running since last November, while the first systems are going into limited stores now.
