F O R I N T E R N A L U S E O N L Y COMPETITIVE ACTION - WEEKLY UPDATE MARCH 25, 1993 Welcome to the new Competitive Action Weekly. If you need more information about these articles, please send an HP Desk message to Competitive /HP6650 Include your name, non-telnet FAX number (IF THE FAX IS OUTSIDE OF THE U.S., PLEASE NOTE AS INTERNATIONAL) and the NUMBER THAT PRECEDES THE ARTICLE YOU NEED. 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 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 ************************************************************** DATA GENERAL ************************************************************** 300. ** DATA TOPICS (EN, 3/15/93, pg. 14) Plans for DG to make its CLARiiON redundant disk array available on Unix systems from HP, ICL and Unisys have been scrapped for the time being, although DG still hopes to do so through deals with third parties. ************************************************************* DIGITAL ARTICLES ************************************************************** 301. ** DEC TO OPEN UP ITS ACMS TRANSACTION PROCESSING MONITOR (UGX, 3/19/93, pg. 2) DEC is expected to make its move into the open systems on-line transaction processing marketplace this month with OSF/1 and Windows NT versions of its ACMS Application Control and Management System. DEC is likely to add an open application programming interface to ACMS. 302. ** DEC: NEW CHIP, NEW PARTNER. NEW BALL GAME? (BW, 3/29/93, pg. 31) Since last summer, DEC has scoured the globe for a chip maker to produce the ultra-fast Alpha microprocessor. And on Mar. 16, DEC finally snared the best still available, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Mitsubishi, the fifth-largest memory chip maker in the world owns a sales network that DEC couldn't hope to duplicate. The enormous distribution potential in Mitsubishi's industrial group should allow it to introduce Alpha to markets where DEC's minicomputer expertise is valueless. 303. ** DIGITAL AND NOVELL WILL MAKE VERSION OF NETWARE SOFTWARE (WSJ, 3/18/93, pg. B6) DEC and Novell said they will jointly create a version of the Netware networking software for computers built around DEC's Alpha microprocessor. DEC is already working with Microsoft, one of Novell's chief rivals, to adapt the forthcoming high end program, Window's NT, to its Alpha line. ************************************************************** GROUPE BULL ************************************************************** 304. ** BULL ADDS DPX/20 RIOS UNIX MODELS (UGX, 3/22/93, PG. 3) Bull has followed IBM in introducing five new DPX/20 servers and an entry level two dimensional color graphics diskless workstation based on the Power RISC architecture and a RAID technology disk array subsystem - the CLARiiON is being bought from DG. ************************************************************** HP ARTICLES ************************************************************** 305. ** WANG, HP IN UNIX HARDWARE - IMAGE SOFTWARE TIE (UGX, 3/19/93, pg. 6) Wang is rewriting its imaging and office integration software to run on the HP 9000 series 800 business servers, and in a technology swap, HP will be reselling this software to its own customers. Wang stated that HP's Unix is closer to standard Unix than IBM's AIX. 306. ** COMMENTS (UGX, 3/19/93, pg. 8) Microprocessor Report makes the point that chips pressing the clock speed argument in their design such as Mips, HP and DEC are the ones winning the performance not the people such as Sun, IBM, and Motorola who contend its all in the instructions per cycle. 307. ** SAMSUNG TO ANNOUNCE FIRST HP COMPATIBLES (DNR, 3/15/93, pg. 5) Samsung announced the industry's first PA-RISC compatible workstations. The machines are based on the 33 MHz and 50 MHz versions of HP's PA-RISC 7100 microprocessor. But observers question Samsung's less than aggressive pricing policy. 308. ** PROGRESS PORTS TO HP 3000, ALPHA OSF/1 (UGX, 3/22/93, pg. 2) Progress announced that is will port its applications development environment to HP 3000 series hardware running the MPE operating system. Initially, a client/server version will allow Progress clients to access HP 3000 servers running Allbase/SQL relational database. This will be available the second half of this year. Early next year, the company will offer a version where Progress applications reside on the HP 3000. 309. ** HEWLETT-PACKARD SAYS SUIT FAILS (WSJ, 3/19/93, pg. A6) A federal judge signed an order dismissing a class-action lawsuit that alleged securities-law violations against HP and some of its officers and directors. The suit was filed in August after HP's common stock declined on an announcement that the company's results for its 1992 fiscal third quarter wouldn't meet analysts' expectations. ************************************************************** IBM ARTICLES ************************************************************** 310. ** NATIVE MAC APPLICATIONS UP ON POWER PC (UGX, 3/19/93, pg. 1) Apple Computer previewed its forthcoming Macintosh Application Services software for the PowerPC RISC chip. The software, which will include a native implementation of the Macintosh Toolkit for the PowerPC architecture, allows the Macintosh Finder and well-behaved Macintosh applications to run within an X-window on PowerPC and IBM RIOS-based systems. 311. ** COMMENTS (UGX, 3/19/93, pg. 8) Clear seems to be all the rage these days, what with Miller Brewing coming out with a beer that not only tastes watered, but actually looks like water, and a Clear Tab form Coca Cola. IBM is right up there with the trend - enter one of those hallowed and long standing computer rooms and you may be able to see right across it with no big iron to impede the view - the transparent mainframe. 312. ** UNIX TO AS/400 LINK EXPECTED TODAY (OST, 3/19/93, pg. 14) Called Express Peer-to-Peer for Unix, from Systems Strategies, sits on top of IBM's LU 6.2 reducing the number of function calls that the user needs to learn from 45 to four. It also can sit on to of IBM's Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking systems and make it easier for the user to set up and use SNA connections. 313. ** IBM LAUNCHES MULTIMEDIA UNIT (UW, 4/93, pg. 18) Hoping to spark demand for its computers and services, IBM has formed a new business unit, Fireworks Partners, charged with developing innovative multimedia hardware and software products an services. The company plans to invest substantially in projects with outside companies. One goal is the creation of a common scripting language so developers can generate multimedia applications that will run on any platform. 314. ** DB2 GETS AROUND (IW, 3/15/93, pg. 14) Among the third party vendors planning to offer development tools for DB2/6000 are Uniface, Information Builders, Dataease, CGI Informatique, and Easel. IBM still has a long way to go to add some of the features found in competitive databases from Oracle or Sybase, such as stored procedures, triggers, large object support, and remote procedure calls. 315. ** IBM TAKES ON DME INTEGRATION FOR OSF (UGX, 3/22/93, pg. 5) IBM is reportedly going to relieve the Open Software Foundation of one of its heaviest burdens and take over integration responsibilities for the Distributed Management Environment (DME). HP is understood to be contributing parts of its Distributed Object Management Facility (DOMF). ************************************************************** NCR ARTICLES ************************************************************** 316. ** NCR URGES NT ACCEPTANCE (OST, 3/19/93, pg. 1) NCR Chairman Williamson said Unix would act primarily as a server operating system and Microsoft DOS, Windows and Windows NT would dominate desktop clients. 317. ** KEEP NCR'S MIDRANGE RUNNING (UW, 4/93, pg. 119) NCR has announced Lifekeeper FRS, a set of software, services and tools that bring fault resiliency to NCR's line of midrange computer systems. Lifekeeper FRS provides automatic failure detection and recovery from system, applications, and component failures. 318. ** NCR ENHANCES TOP-END, ADDS NEW BOXES (UGX, 3/22/93, pg. 6) NCR added some new features to Top-End, NCR's competitor to USL's Tuxedo, that should make it more attractive to customers moving from mainframe-based systems or mixing mainframe and open systems environments. Most important is support for IBM 3270 terminals, the first of the "open" TP systems to do so according to NCR.. ************************************************************** SUN ARTICLES ************************************************************** 319. ** NOVELL AND SUN ALIGN (UW, 4/93, pg. 16) Sun will soon offer SPARCserver computers configured with Novell's Netware. Its the first time Sun will make non-Unix servers available to users. 320. ** SUN JOINS IBM AND HP IN BID FOR DESKTOP UNITY (UGX, 3/22/93, pg. 1) In the face of the threat from Microsoft's NT, six companies announced a plan. HP, IBM, Sun, USL, Univel and SCO announced a common desktop strategy for Unix workstation vendors. Common Open Systems Environment, or COSE, will extend beyond the desktop to embrace common networking, graphics, multimedia, distributed object technology and systems management. DEC was reportedly not invited to join the effort until Tuesday 16th, just 24 hours before the announcement was made. DEC says this didn't allow it sufficient time to evaluate the proposals. ************************************************************** WANG ************************************************************** 321. ** WANG FILES REORGANIZATION PLAN: 3,300 MORE JOBS TO GO (UGX, 3/22/93, pg. 6) Ownership of Wang Laboratories will pass to the most prominent classes of creditors under the company's reorganization plan. The company says it believes the plan will lead the company out of Chapter 11 protection and to profitability in fiscal 1994. The company will have two strategic businesses - integrated imaging and office software, and value-added network services. ************************************************************** OTHER ************************************************************** 322. ** APPLE WILL LAUNCH LOW COST SERVERS AT CEBIT (UGX, 3/15/93, pg. 2) Apple Workgroup Servers are based on the Apple Centris 600 series and Quadra 800 and 950 platforms. Designed to provide file and print services and database support for 15 to 50 users, the servers will comprise three system: the AWS 95, AWS 80 and the AWS 60. They will ship with A/UX 3.0, the firm's new implementation of Unix. 323. ** NT'S LATE (UW, 4/93, pg. 15) It's still coming - just not as soon as competitors feared or application ven- dors hoped. Microsoft now says NT, its next generation operating system, will be officially released during the second quarter of 1993. One key Microsoft ally is also having trouble. Intel says it won't be ready until May with its next generation Pentium CPU, which many analysts suggest will be needed to provide enough processor power to run NT. 324. ** [UNIX INTERNATIONAL] PLANS THREE REFERENCE TECHNOLOGY SEARCHES THIS YEAR (UGX, 3/19/93, pg. 4) Unix International plans to go to the industry at large for three technologies this year. A standard way to support multimedia applications under Unix, and the implementation of distributed object management are planned. The third was not revealed, but it is thought to cover a Unix alternative for the Microsoft object linking, embedding and dynamic data exchange technologies. 325. ** QUOTE OF THE WEEK (IW, 3/15/93, pg. 10) "Obviously, it's a pig". - Arthur Tisi, director of IS for National League for Health Care in New York, on the heavy memory requirements for Microsoft's Windows NT. 326. ** THE MANY FACES OF NT (IW, 3/15/93, pg. 14) Microsoft's emphasis on networking is partly the result of NT's increased enterprise network management capabilities. Not only is Microsoft finishing work on its network based software management system, but last week the company announced its SNA Server for Windows NT, which provides support for IBM's mainframe network protocols. The NT Advanced Server includes support for Apple Macintosh connectivity, along with remote access services, disk fault tolerance, distributed security and centralized management. 327. ** ICL READIES MIX AND MATCH DRS6000s (UGX, 3/22/93, pg. 1) ICL is expected to unveil a range of new DRS6000 Unix boxes on April 14th. The systems have been designed to allow multiple Texas Instruments Inc. SuperSparc and Cypress Semiconductor Corp. HyperSparc RISCs to be configured together in mix and match arrangements.