9370 to ES/9000 Upgrades on offer

IBM is now offering upgrades from the 9370 Models 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, and 60 to the ES/9221 Model 120 family for enhanced processor performance, larger memory, faster channels and additional functions, compared to the 9370 models. There is also a new upgrade from the 9370 Model 80 to the ES/9000 Model 130, and optional input-output Card Unit Adaptors installed on the 9370 Models 80 and 90 will be exchanged without additional charge for upgrades to the ES/9000 with the input-output Bus Dual Link. The Model 120 is said to provide up to 1.6 times the commercial performance of the 9370 Model 30, and up to twice that of the performance of the Model 25. In an engineering environment, IBM claims that the Model 120 provides up to 3.4 times the performance of the Model 30, and up to 4.3 times the performance of the Model 25. Also, Model 120 is said to provide up to 3.8 times the commercial performance of Models 20 and 40, while in an engineering environment, it can provide seven times the performance of the Model 40, and nine times the performance of the Model 20. It is claimed to provide up to 1.3 times the commercial performance of the 9370 Model 50, up to 1.7 times that of the Model 60, and in a scientific environment, up to 2.8 times the performance of the Model 50, 3.2 times that of the Model 60. Finally, the Model 130 provides up to 1.7 times the commercial performance of the Model 80, 3.7 times in scientific environments. The Model 120 can be installed with either the ESA Option or the System/370 Base Option, and the first enables memory upgrade options to be increased incrementally up to a maximum of 256Mb of main storage. There are parallel or Escon channels, and while the parallel channels provide data transfer rates up to 4.5Mb per second, the Escon channels offer up to 10Mb per second capability.

Base Option

Both types are offered in single and three-channel group versions and can attach 256 input-output devices. Integrated input-output buses are available with the Model 120, and PR/SM is included as standard. The Base Option permits up to 16Mb of main storage to be addressed, and users upgrading to the Model 120 can continue to use installed input-output devices and most current processors and adaptors. Also, most users can continue to use existing software support for the installation of the Model 120 processor. Upgrades from 9370 models to the 9221 involve substantial change to the existing processor and the upgrade price includes the standard memory size of the target model. IBM says that model upgrades can be done within eight hours. From the 9373 Model 20 to the 9221 Model 120 is $75,000, the 9373 Model 25 to the Model 120 is $70,000 and the Model 30 to 9221 Model 120 costs $70,000. Upgrading from the 9375 Model 40 to the Model 120 is $75,000, from the 9375 Model 50 to the 9221 Model 120 is $70,000, from the 9375 Model 60 to the Model 120 costs $75,000 and the 9377 Model 80 to 9221 Model 130 is $80,000. IBM has improved availability of the 9348 Tape Controllers and the associated 9348 Magnetic Tape Unit Models 11 and 12 for the ES/9000 Models 120, 130, and 150. The new dates are September for upgrades from 9370 Models 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, and 60 to ES/9000 Model 120. The upgrade from 9370 Model 80 to ES/9000 Model 130 will be available in September, and the 9348 Tape Controller will be available this month in the US.

9371 Micro Channel box now runs Unix

IBM has announced additional disk storage and functions for the Micro Channel 370 – the 9371 models 112, 114, 010, 012 and 014, and at the same time, has withdrawn models 9371-010, 9371-012, and 9371-014. The number of supported channel printer adaptors is doubled, a channel-to-channel capability is available, new printers are supported and new BiProcessor functions are provided. The last include support for the AIX PS/2 operating system, an AIX PS/2 interface is included in the Data Exchange Adaptor, and Data Exchange/VSE provides a VSE interface to the Data Exchange Adaptor. The disk capacity for all models can be increas

ed by using an external storage enclosure which supports up to 2.2Gb of additional storage. For customers with existing System/370 tape drives, an RPQ is available to support attachment of a single 3420 tape drive as a half inch tape option. There is new support for the 3900 Printer, 3828 MICR Printer, 6252 Impactwriter, and ASCII models of the 6262 Printer. All are available June this year, and supported printers include 370 channel-attached printers, co-ax-attached 3270 family printers, and selected parallel or serial supported printers.

Series/1 users

The 3900 Printer is IBM’s highest volume page printer, and the company says that when it is combined with Advanced Function Print software, it supports applications ranging from high-volume printing to data and graphics applications. The 3828 MICR Printer provides Magnetic Ink Recognition printing, The 6262 Impact Printers include co-ax-attached models, 370 channel-attached models, and the parallel or serial interface models A12, A14, and A22. The 6252 Impactwriter is an 800 letter per minute impact printer supported on standard serial and parallel ports of the Micro Channel 370 as well as on the optional 3270 adaptors and optional 8-port adaptors. DATAEX/VSE provides VSE programming interfaces to the Data Exchange Adaptor feature for co-processing with OS/2, MS-DOS or AIX PS/2, and IBM says that a BiProcessor with DATAEX/VSE might be used to provide an integrated system for applications that require co-processing between environments. AIX PS/2 support provides access to VM or VSE by an AIX PS/2 low level interface included with the Data Exchange Adaptor, and the programming interface allows memory to memory exchange of data between VM and AIX PS/2 or VSE and AIX PS/2. The RPQ for Channel-To-Channel Attachment via the 3088 supports direct attachment to a System/370 or a System/390 system. Customers with existing 3420 drives can take advantage of the 3420 Tape Attachment RPQ to attach a single tape drive for low-cost system back-up or half inch tape interchange between systems. The Model 114 BiProcessor with the VSE-PS/2 Data Exchange Program enables Series/1 mini users to continue to use existing Series/1 applications while exploiting VSE and CICS for new applications. With its communication options, battery back-up, and support for remote operation and management, the Micro Channel 370 offers an attractive upward growth path for Series/1 customers. Users are responsible for ordering additional PS/2 software required for applications on the PS/2-side of the Model 114 or the Model 014. The External Storage Enclosure is $1,000, the 9371 Attachment is $2,400, the Attachment External Storage is $180. All are available in June this year.