IBM is becoming more and more dependent on Stratus Computer Inc and yesterday, for the first time, IBM announced its own version of a new Stratus machine on the same day as Stratus itself – the details of the Stratus announcement are in page two. The new 68030 model, which in the Stratus version starts out non-fault-tolerant, is the System/88 4593 Integrated Entry System, which comes with a new Group 5 category for software pricing. From IBM, prices range from $48,800 to $95,000. Under the new five-year agreement signed with Stratus last year, IBM is also to take Stratus’ fault-tolerant implementation of Unix System V.4 on the System/88 so as to have something it can sell to AT&T – which means that the company’s Unix strategy will be further muddled since the new version won’t be compatibel with AIX. The Stratus Unix should be available within 90 days, Stratus said.
