F O R I N T E R N A L U S E O N L Y COMPETITIVE ACTION - WEEKLY UPDATE JULY 15, 1993 If you would like to be added, deleted or you have changed locations, please send a message to Competitive /HP6650. Include your HPDesk address. Competitive Action is posted to HP-UX notes in the group hp.marketing. The string is entitled "hp.competition for ". BC = Beyond Computing BW = Business Week CC = Corporate Computing CIO = CIO CW = Computer World DM = Datamation DNR = Digital news & review EN = Electronic News IW = Information Week MS = Midrange Systems NC = NCR Connection OST = Open Systems Today RSM = RS/Magazine SE = Sun Expert SO = Sun Observer SJMN = San Jose Mercury News SW = Sun World UGX = Unigram-X UR = Unix Review UW = Unix World WN = Workstation News WSJ = Wall Street Journal Editor, Nadine Halsted *********************************************************** INSTRUCTIONS FOR REQUESTING MORE INFORMATION *********************************************************** Send a message to Competitive /HP6650 and include: 1. Name 2 .NON-TELNET (AREA CODE AND TELEPHONE NUMBER) FOR YOUR FAX and telnet fax number. For numbers outside of the US, please note as international. 3. Number that precedes the article you need 4. Limit your request for faxing to a maximum of 3 articles. For 4 or more articles, send your mail stop or street address. Missing or incorrect information may delay delivery of your request. *********************************************************** AMDAHL ARTICLES *********************************************************** 729. ** ICL, AMDAHL, AND FUJITSU JOIN ON IFFY PROJECT (UW, 8/93, pg. 18) A joint development project is underway to unify the mainframe Unix- based operating environments of UK-based ICL, Amdahl, and Fujitsu. The new operating environment, code-named "Unified Operating System," will allow all three vendors to offer a single binary interface for software developers targeting mainframe Unix systems. *********************************************************** DIGITAL ARTICLES *********************************************************** 730. ** SYSTEM V APPS ON OSF/1? (OST, 7/5/93, pg. 14) DEC said it plans in the first quarter of 1994 to enable System V applications to run on its OSF/1 operating system. Using Habitat, DEC OSF/1 will be able to run either its native applications or applications conforming to the System V Interface Definition 3 (SVID 3) from Unix System Laboratories 731. ** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (IW, 7/5/93, pg. 8) Digital is rumored to be seeking a buyer for its storage components operations, which sells disk drives and controllers, and possibly its StorageWorks unit, which sells RAID and tape subsystems. ********************************************************** HP ARTICLES *********************************************************** 732. ** AMI PRO UNIX PORT HAS WINDOWS (OST, 7/5/93, pg. 4) Lotus is set to enter the Unix word processing market with Unix versions of its Ami Pro package that employ the same interface as Ami Pro for Windows and interoperate with other Unix-based Lotus applications. The first version, Ami Pro for HP-UX, will be available this fall, running under Motif and supporting the HP/VUE graphical interface. 733. ** ENCINA FOR HP COMPUTERS (OST, 7/5/93, pg. 30) HP announced immediate availability of the Encina transaction manager for its HP 9000 Series 700 and 800 computers, as well as a new version of the Distributed Computing Environment for those machines. 734. ** HP, DG UPGRADE UNIX SERVERS POWER UP, PRICE DOWN (IW, 7/5/93, pg. 49) HP's new systems include three uniprocessor models and three dual symmetrical multiprocessing systems based on the 96 MHz PA-RISC chip. HP also lowered prices from 10% to 45% on existing systems. The new HP dual-processor provides as much throughput as Sun's eight processor system. In the server market, HP and DEC have the advantage because Sun is significantly behind with its Sparc RISC architecture. Analysts say HP is readying new 8- and 16- processor servers for later this year. DG extended its 4-year-old AViiON line with new SMP servers. 735. ** DOCTOR, DOCTOR, GIVE ME YOU VIEWS (CIO, 7/93, pg. 14) A panel of health-care and IT experts assembled last May by HP tackled the burning issues of the day. Here are some of their remarks: "The Clinton reforms can force health care to embrace the electronic age.." "In most hospitals information gathered is recorded by hand. No other major industry keeps its vital records in this way. We need an integrated electronic system." 736. ** INSURANCE'S LOAN RANGER (CIO, 7/93, pg. 72) Moving to a more-responsive client/server architecture has proven to be a sound policy for AI Credit Corp. Three years ago, AI determined that it could not achieve two of its top strategic goals with the company's 20-year- old mainframe-based information system. Using an HP 9000 with Sybase and Powersoft, AI has achieved a 15% growth in business volume with only a 3 % increase in personnel. AI has lowered its overhead, maintenance and support costs and has a more cohesive corporate identity. [ Editor's note: Good article for MFA prospects. ] 737. ** MANAGING ENTERPRISE NETWORKS (UW, 8/93, pg. 69) When it comes to network mangers, there are two head-to-head competitors that lead the pack: HP's Openview and Sun's SunNet Manger. Openview is a lot more standard than SunNet Manager has been. Openview has better database-handling capabilities. On the other hand, SunNet Manger has done a very good job of integrating services and the management agents of the Sun platforms. In the contest to win the minds and hearts of third-party application developers, HP and its licensee IBM seem to have the most positive momentum. *********************************************************** HITACHI ARTICLES *********************************************************** 738. ** HITACHI PRECISION RISC MAINFRAME "WILL RUN MVS" (UGX, 7/12/93, pg. 5) Hitachi has been developing a mainframe around HP's PA-RISC and plans to introduce this parallel machine that will run applications developed for both its own VOS 3 and IBM's MVS operating systems. *********************************************************** IBM ARTICLES *********************************************************** 739. ** IBM CUTS MUSCLE ALONG WITH FAT (IW, 7/5/93, pg. 16) IBM will include a $2 billion charge for trimming its work force by about 50,000 before the year is out. But under a special incentive plan, the actual number of employees departing could reach 70,000. IBM watchers contend that Big Blue will be sacrificing some of its finest talent in the attrition process. 740. ** A BIG BLUE WAIL (CIO, 7/93, pg. 16) Topping the list of CIO's gripes with IBM were poor service and support, weak client/server product offering, high sticker prices and the proprietary nature of Big Blue's technologies. One course in dealing with IBM is to balance IBM products with those from other vendors, cap development in proprietary environments, recompile portable applications for Unix system and write new applications for client/server platforms. 741. ** COMMENTS (UGX, 7/12/93, pg. 8) IBM will soon announce a new version of AIX and an $11,900 RIOS-based Powerstation 34H. The new box will have a 41.6 MHz processor and run at 83 SPECfp92 and 40.2 SPECint92. *********************************************************** MICROSOFT ARTICLES *********************************************************** 742. ** COMMENTS (UGX, 7/12/93, pg. 8) Those critical of Microsoft and its delivery schedule are saying that the best platform for running Windows NT right now is a 35mm slide projector. 743. ** MICROSOFT'S OBJECT-ORIENTED RIVALS UNITE - OPENDOC AIMS TO CHARGE OLE (IW, 7/5/93, pg. 14) Apple, IBM, WordPerfect, Novell, and Borland all share one objective: slowing down the Microsoft juggernaut. At PC Expo, the group elaborated on its OpenDoc object-oriented compound document architecture, a technology it claims is more open and robust than Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). *********************************************************** SUN ARTICLES *********************************************************** 744. ** USERS STRUGGLING WITH SOLARIS - A YEAR LATER, SOME ARE STILL COPING WITH SUNSOFT'S MOVE FROM SUNOS (OST, 7/5/93, pg. 14) SunSoft's transition a year ago from the SunOS operating system to Solaris still has some users and ISVs reeling. Two ISVs and a user speaking at a Sun-organized panel said the Solaris product is a super operating system. But incompatibilities between Solaris and SunOS required extensive code rewriting. 745. ** AS SUN TRIES TO BOOST STOCK VALUE (OST, 7/5/93, pg. 20) Disappointed with the performance of its stock, Sun announced it would repurchase as many as 10 million of its own shares on the open market. 746. ** SUN RAMPS UP NEW GRAPHICS PUSH (EN, 7/5/93, pg. 15) Sun unveiled three systems based on Sun-designed accelerators manufactured by Fujitsu. Attempting to counter Sun's new graphics push, Silicon Graphics will take the wraps off the Indigo2XL and the Indigo2XZ, a new line of graphics-capable computers based on its high-end Indigo2Extreme product. [ Editor's note: Check the competitive hotline subject EZSGI793 for an HP analysis of SGI's announcement and subject SUN793 for analysis of Suns new products.] 747. ** INTERGRAPH-SUN DEAL STARTS THE WINDOWS NT-ON- SPARC TRAIN ROLLING (UGX, 7/12/93, pg. 1) Intergraph plan to implement NT on new high-end Sparc-based systems that it'll deliver in 1995. The company has already shown NT running on its existing Clipper RISC-based systems and on a line of recently announced Pentium boxes. [ Editor's note: Check the competitive hotline subject SUNINT93 for an HP analysis of this announcement.] *********************************************************** STRATUS ARTICLES *********************************************************** 748. ** COMMENTS (UGX, 7/12/93, pg. 8) Stratus is now shipping version 2.2 of its FTX Unix SVR4 implementation, which includes support for symmetric multiprocessing. *********************************************************** TANDEM ARTICLES *********************************************************** 749. ** WATCH OUT, TANDEM (DM, 7/1/93, pg. 13) Start-up Sentinel Systems will ship a fault tolerant computer in September that's reputedly one-fifth the price of competing low-end minicomputers. The Sentry-E system uses relatively inexpensive Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA)- based boards. *********************************************************** WANG ARTICLES *********************************************************** 750. ** AND WANG MAY EVEN SEE BLACK INK (BW, 7/19/93, pg. 32) Incredibly, Wang Laboratories may be on its way to recovery. The fallen computer maker announced on July 7 that it plans to raise $100 million in debt and equity to finance a move out of Chapter 11. In the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, Wang projects and operating profit of $53 million. *********************************************************** OTHER *********************************************************** 751. ** UNDETERRED, TPC APPROVES ANOTHER BENCHMARK (OST, 7/5/93, pg. 62) Undeterred by the controversy it finds itself in, the Transaction Processing Performance Council has approved a new benchmark designed to measure the performance of decision-support systems. Called TPC-D, the benchmark is designed to provide a quantifiable, comparable measure to gauge how efficiently various combinations of hardware, operating systems and databases provide data used to make business decisions like pricing and purchasing. 752. ** WHAT IF APPLE HELD A SOFTWARE SALE AN NOBODY CAME? (BW, 7/19/93, pg. 23) In another time, licensing its software might have cushioned Apple's earnings shock, allowing it to collect software royalties with profit margins typically twice those of its PC hardware. Today, though, at least three of the PC makers Apple approached say they're not interested in licensing the Mac operating system. Risky or not, Apple also is considering licensing its Mac software to other PC makers that use the PowerPC chip. 753. ** A BENCHMARKING OPPORTUNITY (CIO, 7/93, pg. 22) An annual study conducted by Nolan, Norton & Co. gives some insights about data-center operations. As a result of consolidation, the median data- center workload has increased 67 percent, even while data-center staffing has decreased by an average of 8 percent. 754. ** UNIX TEAM SPEC WORK ON TRACK (EN, 7//5/93, pg. 16) HP, IBM, SunSoft, and Unix Systems Laboratories have completed work on the initial release of a common open desktop environment which they see as a key to the survival of Unix. The release is immediately being sent to X-Open for industry review and comments. Meanwhile, in counter point to the COSE announcement, Microsoft's Gates launched a counteroffensive at PC Expo to defend the company's offering "NT in a sense is a form of Unix." 755. ** INFORMATION BUILDERS TO OFFER DEC, IBM, NT, OSF/1 SUPPORT (UGX, 7/12/93, pg. 2) Information Builders will announce a new product and marketing strategy in September that will include support for DEC's Alpha AXP OSF/1, IBM's OS/2 and Microsoft's Windows NT platforms. A new object-oriented graphical interface will be included. ******************* END OF DOCUMENT ********************