IBM to support UNIX on 4300

[Alex Nishri]

In article <424 at lsuc.UUCP> dave at lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) writes:
>Will this be as a virtual machine (I think that's what they
>call them) under VM? (What I really mean is, will it be able
>to run together with other operating systems at the same time?)
>Also, any word on what the price might be - something cheaper
>than Amdahl's UTS, I hope...

- unlike Amdahl's UTS, IX/370 is full duplex and comes with uucp and vi.

- IX/370 must run under VM/SP.  VM/SP is a very simple program which allows
  multiple operating systems to run under one IBM 370 Architecture machine
  giving each the illusion of having their own machine.  Operating Systems
  which know they are running under VM/SP, as presumably IX/370 does, can
  also issue hypervisor calls to VM/SP to obtain some "hardware" services
  which are more complex to issue on a real IBM 370.

- Prices from the (American) announcement letter:
  Maximum Number of        One Time Charge
  Concurrently signed
     on users

        16                    $10,000
        32                    $20,000
        64                    $40,000
        65+                   $75,000


  Monthly Licensed Program Support Charge: $475.00
  Monthly Multiple Licensed Program Support Charge: $792.00

- Of course you will also need a machine which can run IBM 370
  architecture (with at least 4 Megabyte of storage.)  And one
  Series/1 computer per virtual machine running IX/370.  At least
  200Mb of IBM type DASD and at least one IBM tape drive.

- Source and online documentation are not supplied.  One hardcopy of some
  documentation is shipped free with each license.

- IBM had an Announcements Seminar today in Toronto (lasting 5 hours.)  Many
  new strategic products were announced.  The IX/370 annoucement was glossed
  over in a few seconds (and only one slide).  A statement was made to the
  effect that IX/370 could be used to consolidate centrally your currently
  distributed UNIX.  (A key theme from IBM in the last few years has been
  that distributed systems are a good approach for some applications, but
  that eventually distributed systems just but a greater demand for
  large centrally supported services.  One joke, "If you have an office
  near a water fountain, your PC future is better.")

- General Availability: October, 1985
  Education (IX/370 planning & installation): Third Quarter 1985

What I heard may not be entirely the way it was said, so please verify
things for yourself.

Alex Nishri
University of Toronto
BITNET: alex at utoronto
USENET: ... utcs!nishri