Unisys Corp’s new Clearpath SMP 61000 servers support two to 10 150MHz or 200MHz Pentium Pros and run Unisys’s Unix System V.4/MP, UnixWare 2.1 or NT (CI No 2,893). They are priced from $90,000 to $150,000 as quads; $190,000 to $240,000 with eight CPUs. The 61000 series includes Unisys’s 533Mbps Synchronous Coherent Memory bus which makes it possible for users to mix and match Pentium and Pentium Pro chips in Unix arrangements. NT versions (Pentium Pro-only) are due next quarter. Pentium units ship this month. All support up to 4Gb RAM, seven PCI and five EISA slots. Unisys says it will phase out its own System V.4/MP operating system in favor of UnixWare by year-end. 61000 models will replace the Unix-only U6000 Series – although the Sequent Computer Systems Corp Symmetrys bought in OEM and offered as the Models 75 and 85 are still available. Non-Synchronous Coherent Memory bus NT systems will remain. Unisys claims it will be the first out of the hatch with 10-way Pentium Pros by eschewing Intel Corp’s Standard High Volume board and Orion chip set in favor of its own Sierra dual-processor boards. Unisys’s A-series and 2200 mainframe lines get new models, each fitted with the 0.5 micron CMOS single-chip implementation being fabricated by IBM Corp, including the A2400 and A2800 and eight-way 2200/3800 (which can go to 64-way with clustering). Unisys also launched its proof-of-concept iAPX-based A2100 server running the A Series MCP/AS operating system (mostly under emulation until P7 arrives) – a smart trick since the A-series is a 48-bit machine and Pentium Pro is 32-bit. The PCI bus system is object code- compatible with A Series models. The 2200/3800 is due in August, the A2400 in May and the A2100 and A2800 will ship in June.
