Siemens Nixdorf Informationssystemes AG is expected to unveil a new 16-way mainframe using off-the-shelf MIPS RISCs as part of year’s CeBit Hanover Fair festivities slated to perform around 100 mainframe MIPS. SNI ,which introduced a four-way SR2000 Sunrise server using four MIPS R4400 chips last year (CI No 3,085), says the new system, understood to use the higher- performance MIPS R10000, will be sold throughout Europe, the biggest market being its home territory. The mainframe will run applications written for SNI’s BS2000/OSD as well as some Unix middleware programs and selected middleware. For the time being SNI will continue to resell the IBMulators it OEMs from Fujitsu Ltd running BS2000 alongside the MIPS mainframes. SNI, which used to develop its own IBM’s 370 and 390-like but incompatible mainframes, offers the M-Series Fujitsu boxes microcoded to run the IBM OS/VS1-alike BS2000 mainframe operating system to which SNI progressively added MVS features. SNI, which claims to be the number two supplier of Intel servers and NT systems in Europe says it will this year ramp up its North American sales effort through its Siemens Pyramid Information Systems Inc unit. New SVP technology Fred DeSantis, on board from Unisys Corp is currently evaluating ways of differentiating SNI’s NT and Unix products for the US market. Key to the plan is expected to be heterogeneous clusters of mixed NT and Unix systems. The company says it will begin to offer two-way clustering for one Primergy NT and one Unix RM server using its Mesh interconnect and Reliant clustering software in the near future with a four-way configuration expected to be available around mid-year. Whether it’ll require use of the next-generation Mesh II interconnect isn’t clear and the company declined to elaborate. The company says its Reliant single system image software will further differentiate it from the competition and will continue to enhance its shared nothing massively parallel technology. Siemens Pyramid says the it’s is talking to all of the Unix camps but hasn’t yet decided which one it’ll play footsie with for its future Unix kernel requirements. By the way, its plan to connect Mesh with Tandem Computers Inc’s ServerNet interconnect was deep-sixed after Tandem’s acquisition by Compaq Computer Corp.
