F O R I N T E R N A L U S E O N L Y COMPETITIVE ACTION - WEEKLY UPDATE JULY 1, 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 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. *********************************************************** DIGITAL ARTICLES *********************************************************** 676. ** DECUS CUTS A CLASS-Y DEAL (DNR, 6/21/93, pg. 8) Under a program called "Class Pass", the DEC Users Society is offering substantial discounts on training classes and seminars from Digital's Learning Services group. 677. ** DEC ADVANCES DATES FOR KEY AXP FEATURES (CW, 6/28/93, pg. 84) DEC is now committed to adding support for both volume shadowing and file journaling to the Alpha AXP version of its OpenVMS operating system this year, ahead of its original 1Q94 schedule. *********************************************************** HP ARTICLES *********************************************************** 678. ** HP TO INTRODUCE 6 RISC SERVERS (DNR, 6/21/93, pg. 3) HP will unveil a half dozen Unix servers based on the PA-RISC 7100 architecture. HP will focus its efforts on high-end multiprocessing machines that feature more than four CPUs. 679. ** HP TAPS SYNON TO HELP IT RAID AS/400 BASE (UGX, 6/28/93, pg. 3) HP has enlisted Synon to help in accessing applications written for the AS/400. Synon/Open, a Unix generator will provide users with automatic code generation for the HP 9000. Using the tool, character-based AS/400 applications will run on the HP 9000 without modifications. 680. ** GTE MAKES IT SIMPLE WITH CLIENT/SERVER (OST, 6/21/93, pg. HP4) When the data services segment of the nation's second-largest telephone carrier, GTE, adopted its new distributed computing environment, it decided to pare down its disparate hodgepodge of network management protocols to one: HP's OpenView. *********************************************************** IBM ARTICLES *********************************************************** 681. ** RIVER FLOW - IBM (EN, 6/21/93, pg. 4) IBM is preparing to boost the power of its RISC System/6000 with a new chip set that will initially increase performance two to three times and ultimately five to ten times. The new implementation will be used in systems scheduled to be introduced 4Q93. 682. ** A MOSTLY FAVORABLE IMPRESSION (CIO, 6/15/93, pg. 24) At a recent IBM sponsored conference, a frequently voiced concern was IBM's lack of integration among its different product lines - from the mainframe to the RISC system to the AS/400 platform. Customers indicated hat they had put considerable effort into such integration activities, which they felt should be the responsibility of IBM. 683. ** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - IBM (IW, 6/21/93, pg. 8) IBM's fledgling Power Parallel Systems business unit has hired an NCR official to head its marketing. Ben Barnes will sell IBM's RISC-based parallel system to commercial and technical customers when the machines become generally available in the fall. 684. ** AS/400 RETOOLED FOR NETWARE SERVICE (CW, 6/28/93, pg. 4) IBM is expected in September to add client/server functionality to its low- end AS/400 in an attempt to position them more competitively as local-area network servers against Intel's I486- and Pentium- based machines. *********************************************************** PYRAMID ARTICLES *********************************************************** 685. ** PYRAMID READY TO JOLT HIGH-END INTO LIFE (UGX, 6/28/93, pg. 1) Pyramid will introduce a new range of systems in July based upon Mips R4400 MC RISC, which is optimized for multiprocessing. Dubbed Jolt - or just our latest technology - the machines will be configured with 2 to 16 CPUs initially and ship in October. *********************************************************** SGI ARTICLES *********************************************************** 686. ** COMMENTS (UGX, 6/28/93, pg. 8) SGI is working on a new generation low-end workstation under the code name Guiness that is due out this summer. It may be based on the R4000/R4400 or the new low-cost R4200. It may also include digital media, digital audio/video and set a new SGI price point below $10,000. *********************************************************** SUN ARTICLES *********************************************************** 687. ** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - SOCCER (IW, 6/21/93, pg. 10) Sun's next big play will be on the soccer field. The USA World Cup organization has contracted with the workstation maker to provide systems to manage next year's games. Included in the deal are more than 1,000 workstations, along with servers running Sun's Solaris operating system. 688. ** SUN BOOSTS NET MANAGEMENT (CW, 6/28/93, pg. 1) Sun is preparing to fight off IBM and HP encroachments on its network management turf. Sun will go on the offensive with a salvo of help features aimed at the less SNMP-savvy user. A lack of features in the current Sun Net manager make it awkward and frustrating to use. 689. ** SUN MICROSYSTEMS' FUTURE MAY BE HEADED FOR THE DUSK (WSJ, 6/24/93, pg. C1) Analyst and money managers agree that Sun may be about to be bounced out of its cushy station. For the first time, it is facing strong competition in high-powered desktop workstations from the trio of IBM, DEC, and HP. Mr. Smith, a technology analyst, says Sun's microprocessor, Sparc, is behind that of HP and DEC in some important performance measurements and Sun's lead in other categories is shrinking. 690. ** SUN's NEW GRAPHICS BOXES (UGX, 6/28/93, pg. 1) Sun will soon turn its attention to the graphics market with new Sparcstation 10TurboGXplus, ZX and 10ZX models, which are pitched directly against HP and SGI. Sun claims the Sparcstation ZX outperforms HP's 715/33 24Z. 691. ** SUN TO JOIN SYSTEMS INTEGRATION BUSINESS (UGX. 6/28/93, pg. 5) Sun is working on an integration division that will be based in Chelmsford Massachusetts, home of Sun's personal computer and LAN-to -Unix connectivity division, SunSelect. The unit will focus on helping Sun customers to build networks of multivendor solutions and will use technology from other Sun divisions plus other network and integration technologies from other vendors. *********************************************************** TANDEM ARTICLES *********************************************************** 692. ** TANDEM VOWS TO CUT DOWNTIME (CW, 6/28/93, pg. 85) By the end of 1994, Tandem plans to announce a range of software capabilities aimed at reducing typical downtimes on its flagship Guardian fault-tolerant computers. The company hopes to diminish downtime to 10% of current levels, in part by allowing on-line system reconfigurations. *********************************************************** OTHER *********************************************************** 693. ** NOVELL COMPLETES BUY OF AT&T's UNIX UNIT (EN, 6/21/93, pg. 6) Novell completed its acquisition of Unix System Laboratories (USL) from AT&T. USL shareholders approved the acquisition, in which Novell will exchange 1.1 million shares of its common stock for the outstanding shares of USL stock. 694. ** MIPS GETS HELP FROM FRIENDS ON PROCESSOR DESIGN (DNR, 6/21/93, pg. 6) Mips is hoping to leverage a joint development agreement with its chip partners into a 200 SPECint, 300 SPECfp processor by next year. Mips, along with its partners, is pumping $150 million into a joint development program to bring the chip - code named the T5 - to fruition. 695. ** VAR WARS (WN, 7/93, pg. 1) According to IDC, the workstation market will experience an annual growth of 24 percent, with revenues surging from $7.3 billion in 1990 to $18.2 billion in 1994. More than 40 percent of workstation sales worldwide occur through indirect channels, and by 1994 the number will grow to nearly 70 percent. 696. ** RIGHTSIZING STUFF (CIO, 6/15/93, pg. 16) Respondents moving down from a mainframe or away from a proprietary system cited decreasing costs (46) percent) and increasing flexibility (44 percent) as the main reason for rightsizing. Respondents said the most influential forces driving automation were increased worldwide competition (28 percent) , growing productivity (26 percent) and the need to cut costs (24 percent). 697. ** AN IMAGE MAKEOVER (CIO, 6/15/93, pg. 20) Image processing is not overpriced, high-profile techno-wizardry; it's a proven procedure for bettering customer service. A survey of senior IS and end-user managers showed customer service has become the new competitive reason for investing in image-processing. 698. ** EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - CITICORP (IW, 6/21/90, pg. 8) Citicorp has begun development of a computer imaging system that will transmit digitized pictures of customers from bank computers to point-of- sale terminals at merchant locations. 699. ** DYNAMIC DATABASE DUO (IW, 6/21/93, pg. 14) Novell and Oracle ended weeks of speculation by unveiling OracleWare, a shrink-wrapped package combining the two companies' flagship products. OracleWare will combine Novell's NetWare 3.X network operating system, the Oracle 7 database, and a new multiserver messaging system called Oracle Office. 700. ** COSE - NO ORGANIZATION, NO MEMBERS, NO NAME (UGX. 6/28/93, pg. 3) Trademark rights to the COSE name belong to an unnamed company. The news throws arrangements for the Uniforum-sponsored COSE developer conference in October into a quandary. COSE can't even use CDE for its common desktop environment - that's Oracle's Co-operative Development Environment. ******************* END OF DOCUMENT ********************