Groupe Bull and IBM Extend Agreement Long-Term for UNIX Systems and Software

Business Wire, Oct 1, 1998

SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 1998--Groupe Bull and IBM announced today they have extended their agreement to include development of PowerPC based UNIX systems and the AIX operating system. The new agreement builds on existing agreements between the companies that go back six years.

Bull and IBM engineers will develop systems using PowerPC chips and continue joint work on the AIX operating system. Bull and IBM teams developed symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) function on AIX to speed workload processing.

The companies will focus on designing systems with very high-speed PowerPC microprocessors, improved performance with 64-bit processing, plus high-availability features to meet the round-the-clock needs of customers. Over the term of the agreement, newer generation PowerPC processors will be incorporated in the systems.

Groupe Bull servers division president, Didier Breton, said, "With IBM we continue to provide our customers with technological leadership in PowerPC microprocessor technology and award-winning AIX software. Bull will continue to contribute our own engineers to work with IBM, as well as for Bull's own specific customer requirements. Our goal is to double our sales and increase marketshare of AIX and PowerPC in Europe."

IBM vice president of server development, John Kelly, said, "Using the high degree of cooperation between Bull and IBM, our goal is to extend our track record of innovation in delivering features that will raise the performance of customers' applications."

According to the IDC consulting firm, PowerPC is the most popular RISC-based microprocessor and AIX is the leading Unix operating system for servers as measured on units shipped.