From: mtaghavi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Amir Taghavi)
Subject: ***** Science News for Science Lovers *****
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 02:44:21 GMT

SCO to go Online 

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 19 (NB) -- Until now,
The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) has not had a online forum for
its users, resellers, and partners. However, the company
announced at its annual SCO Forum92 that it has made an
agreement to start such a forum.

The forum will have files for downloading, online conferencing, 
and dedicated messages for discussion of SCO products and 
services. The company says it hopes to be able to rapidly disseminate
information, bug fixes, and advice to its estimated 5 million
users worldwide.

Compuserve representatives said the planned SCO Forum will be
the first vendor-specific Unix System forum on the online
service.

SCO is privately held and says it has shipped 750,000 copies of
its Unix operating system -- more copies than any other vendor of the
Unix operating system. SCO also makes a Unix operating system for IBM
and compatible 386- and 486-based computers.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920819/Press Contact: Zee Zaballos, The
Santa Cruz Operation, tel 408-425-7222, fax 408-427-5448; Debra
Young, Compuserve, 614-457-8600)



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Indian Firm Wipro Launches Minicomputer Line 


BANGALORE, INDIA, 1992 AUG 18 (NB) -- Wipro Infotech finally has a 
machine to counter some of the most powerful mini- and 
superminicomputers manufactured locally. The company would soon be 
launching Wipro Synergy, a successor to Landmark 4860, its Unix 
server launched two years ago.

Like 4860, Synergy is a multi-CPU machine. The difference is in terms 
of the coupling of processors. Though 4860 had the multiprocessor 
option, it had a single CPU operating environment, its loosely 
coupled architecture restricting the scalability to 30 to 40 percent. 
Synergy, on the other hand, has a tightly-coupled architecture and 
Unix SR.4 MP version which has the ability to handle multiprocessing. 
Wipro claims that the scalability is 70 to 80 percent in Synergy. 
The machine would have six 486DX 50 MHz CPUs (the number of CPUs 
may go up to a maximum eight minus the clock doubler). 

The most significant difference, however, is in the bus width. 
Synergy has a 64-bit data bus that can handle 200 M-bytes per 
second. In other words, the architecture of the machine is designed 
to incorporate P5, Intel's 64-bit chip expected to come out later 
this year.

With a claimed processing speed of 81 mips at 50 MHz for a two-CPU 
machine, Synergy compares well with the high-end DRS 6000 of ICIM 
(ICL affiliate) which is 58 mips at 40 MHz, or the business server 
of the HCL HP 9000 series, which delivers 53 mips and which is 
considered the major competitor by Wipro.

Wipro has a highly ambitious marketing strategy for Synergy. The target 
customers include Wipro's own clients--who have landmark 4860 as well 
as those who have Wipro's Motorola-based minis. "We are also offering 
upgrade paths to Synergy for the machines of our competitors," says 
Sudhir Sethi, marketing manager. It is positioned as a central server 
handling 50 to 60 users on an average, a branch server and a 
database server. Target market segments include manufacturing, 
general accounting, banking and finance. 

The pricing is aggressive with a machine with standard configuration 
costing between Rs 2-2.3 million, which is about 15 percent less 
than other systems in its class, as of now. Obviously, that spells 
price wars in the minicomputer market here in the coming days.



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