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To: $Mogul who wrote (60833)	9/12/1999 7:59:00 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 120523

PUT THIS ONE AWAY IN YOUR RETIREMENT WITH INTC..... Posted at 4:10 p.m. PDT Sunday, September 12, 1999 IBM unveils new UNIX line BY NICOLE VOLPE NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. is set to unveil Monday a new line-up of powerful computers designed to manage Internet sites large and small, taking aim at current market leader Sun Microsystems Inc. The new line of IBM RS/6000 workstations range from entry-level servers used to manage local networks up to big-brain supercomputer-class machines. The line is based on IBM's state-of-the-art copper-based computer chips and designed for the UNIX operating system, a market dominated by Sun. The UNIX software operating system is used to run computers that control a variety of key business operations, like telephone networks, stock exchanges and office data centers. It is the main alternative to Microsoft's Windows NT. The new IBM products are part of a strategy to surround Sun on all sides. The effort includes IBM's pending acquisition of Sequent Computer Systems, with technology to run either UNIX and Windows software. The July 12 deal requires approval of Sequent shareholders and the European Union. ''IBM has new technology, new products, new partnerships and a new attitude,'' said Rod Atkins, IBM general manager of RS/6000, said in a statement obtained ahead of the announcement. ''We're serious about UNIX and we're going to prove it.'' The company said its RS/6000 S80 uses up to 24 computer chips and triples the performance of IBM's former model. IBM said the combined performance of the 24 copper chips surpass that of servers from Sun that use up to 64 microprocessors. Fewer microprocessors also use less power and are less likely to fail. IBM said the new line, designed for use in data intensive programmes used to control key business operations or to manage vast customer databases, would be priced well below the current Sun Enterprise10000. A Sun E10000, the company's hot-selling high-end computer, with 64 chips and equivalent amounts of computer memory, costs about 50 percent more than an RS/6000 with 24 microprocessors, IBM said. ''This is a very aggressive set of products,'' industry consultant Andrew Allison said in an interview. ''It positions IBM well, particularly in price performance. It will cause Sun pain.'' Allison said Sun is in a position to drop its prices to stay competitive. But to meet performance levels of the IBM lineup, Sun would have to upgrade the architecture of its high-end system, which could take until the middle of next year. ''There is likely to be a lot of pressure on Sun for the next several months,'' he said. ''I don't expect a dramatic shift, but the IBM share of the UNIX server market will increase. It's a significant step forward for IBM.'' While Sun is the market leader in providing UNIX systems to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM are not far behind, Allison said. Attacking Sun's dominance of the ISP market from below, IBM is also introducing Monday a new product code-named Pizzazz for ISPs, and so-called Application Service Providers (ASP), which lease software to companies over the Web, eliminating the need for customers to manage their own software. Pizzazz, or the B50, will be sold with related new data storage systems. The RS/6000 B50 and a companion Intel chip-based Netfinity server are compact and designed for managing tasks like Web hosting, messaging, Internet security, directory services and electronic commerce. It runs on IBM's UNIX system, called AIX, or a low-cost, open source alternative that is popular with Web site managers, the Linux operating system. ''We expect these to be a favorite among those who demand Linux as their server operating system,'' said Kai Staats, chief executive of Terra Soft Solutions, an IBM partner. The IBM B50 is priced at less than $4,000, among the cheapest in the ISP market.