On February 15th, IBM introduced an extensive new family of technical workstation products called the RISC System/6000. The new line is broader, deeper and more powerful and configurable than any competitor’s offerings. If IBM can really deliver on its promises, the RS/6000 will pose a major threat to the current workstation leaders. Pricing is very aggressive, performance is in some cases 2-3x the competition and the products are clearly positioned for scientific, technical and engineering audiences. Most, but not all, of the products will be available calendar Q2 1990. Competitive Analysis believes IBM’s new entries will radically change the Workstation industry by reestablishing the performance standards and weeding out some of the weaker players.
Key points of the RS/6000 announcement include:
• Very aggressive performance, pricing and service programs
• Superscalar RISC architecture with caching and high-performance memory bus
• Motif as standard user interface instead of NextStep
• InfoExplorer, a hypertext search engine for online help and customized system navigation
• Bundling of system software
• Pricing based on configured systems
• Aggressive adoption of technologies such as SCSI, Display PostScript, SGI’s 3-D graphics, 24-bit color, CD-ROM, 8mm tape backup
The new IBM workstations will have their greatest effect on Sun Microsystems, HP/Apollo and DEC later this year as applications software and the products themselves come on line. IBM hopes to increase market share from 2% to 33% in three years. (In 9 to 18 months, IBM’s efforts might force other workstation vendors further into Apple’s high performance PC territory.) Winners among the industry players are OSF, Adobe, Silicon Graphics and IXI as IBM greatly increases the use of their technologies. Losers include Microsoft, The Santa Cruz Operation, NeXT, Metaphor and the weaker workstation vendors such as Wang, Data General and Prime.
Announcement Overview
Very Broad Product Line. There are two product lines, the POWERstations and the POWERservers. These are further divided by form factor, i.e. desktop, deskside and large rackmount configurations. Clock speeds range from 20 to 30 MHz and MIPS rating run from 27.5 to 41. Memory starts at 8 MB and can be expanded up to 256 MB on some models. Internal storage begins at 120 MB and can grow to 2.5 GB on the larger model; external storage can expand to 11.9 GB. Video ranges from 16-level grayscale to full 24-bit color. The nine new models are priced from $12,995 to $116,585 with about three configurations for each model.
IBM also introduced the Xstation 120, a compact, low-cost intelligent terminal designed to be attached via EtherNet or Token-Ring to RS/6000 systems. Configurations run from $2525 to $9868. Appendix B lists the complete product line, configurations and pricing for systems.
Product Availability. Product shipment is listed as “in the second quarter,” but two models won’t be ready until calendar Q3 and the largest server configuration won’t be available until Q4. Old RTs will no longer be available after May 15, 1990.
New Very High-Performance Architecture. The RS/6000 family utilizes IBM’s third generation, super-scalar RISC-based architecture called POWER (Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC). POWER allows up to four instructions to be completed within one clock cycle. Special memory buses can move 64- or 128-bit data at 160 to 480 MB per second. Some of the models include special graphics processors licensed from Silicon Graphics (SGI) and are positioned specifically and 3-D color graphics workstations.
IBM Chooses GUI: Motif Wins Over NextStep. IBM has chosen OSF’s Motif graphical user interface shell for UNIX as its standard interface on the RS/6000 series. It will be incorporated along with Xwindows, Display PostScript and SGI’s GL into AIXwindows, which in turn sits on top of IBM’s own brand of UNIX called AIX version 3. The bundling of Motif is a major blow to NeXT, Inc. which had hoped that its NextStep interface would be given a major boost from IBM. NextStep will be offered as an option in Q3.
Apple Impact. We believe the RS/6000 will have little direct effect on any Apple products since the channels and markets are quite different and lack of productivity software will hamper general use of RS/6000 products. IBM’s pricing also begins where Apple’s tops off. The main impact on Apple will be in Higher Ed accounts where IBM will be very aggressive with 60% discounts or higher. They will also be seeding university developers with “loaner systems” for up to a year.
Industry Impact. The new IBM workstations will have their greatest effect on HP/Apollo, Sun Microsystems and DEC later this year as applications software and the products themselves come on line. IBM hopes to increase market share from 2% to 33% in three years. (In 9 to 18 months, IBM’s efforts MIGHT force other workstation vendors further into Apple’s high performance PC territory and once again muddy the distinctions between high-end PCs and workstations.) Winners among the industry bystanders are OSF, Adobe, Silicon Graphics and IXI as IBM greatly increases the use of their technologies. Losers include NeXT, Metaphor and the weaker workstation vendors such as Wang, Data General and Prime.
In the long run, it seems that only HP/Apollo and DEC have the infrastructure necessary to compete fully with IBM in technical workstations. Their service/support organizations are almost on par with IBM’s but their product line performance and depth are lacking. Sun Microsystems is in trouble on almost every count except customer base and software—they are way behind in performance, architecture, product line depth, peripherals, 3-D graphics and perhaps most importantly, service and support. IBM’s competitors’ reactions will be very interesting to watch.
IBM’s New Technologies
POWER Architecture. This is a new, third generation, super-scalar RISC-based architecture called POWER (Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC). While other RISC designers have been striving toward completing one instruction per cycle, POWER allows up to four instructions to be completed within one clock cycle. Also, IBM’s “reduced” instruction set is quite large at 184, comparable to many CISC designs. Using both parallel design and pipelining, the processor is heavily cached and sports an 8 KB cache in the chip that is fed by a special memory bus that can move 64- or 128-bit data at 160 to 480 MB per second. The instruction times, caching and memory bus are all major accomplishments, well beyond what most RISC processors and systems have today. The result is stunning performance claims that are two to three times greater than comparable products. IBM has applied for over 30 patents here.
Micro Channel Architecture Level 2. This is an enhanced version of the 32-bit bus that IBM announced with the PS/2 in 1987. In MCA/2, IBM has modified the block move transfers to use data streaming. This roughly doubled the burst speed of the bus to 40 MB/second and sustained speed to 25-30 MB/second. Card sizes have been changed to over 64 sq. inches, about 77% more area than on standard MCA/1 cards. This will allow more sophisticated add-on card design and greater functionality. (Note: MCA Levels 3 and 4 have also been hinted at which will yield even higher performance—Level 3 borrows the bus address lines for block moves, thus doubling the data path to 64 bits and Level 4 changes timing circuitry to 50 nanoseconds, doubling performance once again.)
IBM’s Borrowed Technologies
With the RS/6000s, IBM has introduced, adopted or licensed many technologies previously available from competitors. Here are some of them:
SCSI: IBM has moved to the 4 MB/second SCSI standard for the entire RS/6000 line on both internal and external storage. Look for this to begin to happen in the PS/2 line during the next 12 months. (Several other IBM-compatible makers are moving this way as well, including Tandy most recently.) One SCSI controller card comes standard with each system; additional cards are available for $1200.
CD-ROM: IBM’s first CD-ROM drive is same as the industry standard CD-ROM with 550 to 600 MB capacity and 380 ms average access time. Priced at $1395 internal, $1695 external. (Note that the rumored 3-inch version did not surface in this announcement.)
8mm Tape Backup: IBM has standardized on 8mm helical scan, streaming tape as its backup device. Transfer rate is 245 KB per second. A 2.3 GB internal drive sells for $6300. External versions go for $6650. IBM is the first major firm besides H-P to adopt this video technology for computer data applications.
Display PostScript. This Adobe screen imaging technology had previously been used only by NeXT. IBM has now endorsed it by making it standard on the RS/6000 line. However, IBM’s press and customer materials make very little mention of it and there is little detail on how well integrated it is or what, if any, applications will make special use of it.
3-D Color Graphics. 3D graphics processing technology has been licensed from Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI). The special processor boards are optional on some systems and bundled on others. It requires 2 slots to operate and supports multiple planes, overlay planes, arbitrarily-shaped windows, several different lighting, shading and anti-aliasing models, 6-axis clipping, pan & zoom and 32-bit coordinate systems.
• The 8-bit board supports 16-, 19- and 23-inch analog non-interlaced 1280x1024 color 60MHz displays. 256 of 16.7 million colors can be displayed. It is upgradeable to the 24-bit board.
• The 24-bit board adds support for 12- or 24-bit color (i.e. all 16.7 million colors can be displayed).
• A $3000, 24-Bit Z-Buffer Solid rendering option piggy-backs onto the above boards and provides additional support for hidden lines and surfaces and enables smoother rendering.
Attendees at the announcements reported being very impressed by some spectacular color graphics demos. (Although it would appear that SGI is giving away it’s competitive advantage by licensing this technology, word has it that they will ship new and improved products within the next 6 months. What IBM licensed is SGI’s 3-year old technology!)
IBM’s System Software
New AIX. The basic, bundled OS is “AIX version 3 for RISC System/6000.” This is a preemptive, multitasking, demand-paged, virtual memory OS with realtime capabilities and extensive storage management utilities. It is also POSIX and OSI compliant. There are many enhancements over previous versions of AIX. IBM claims compatibility with versions of Berkeley UNIX as recent as 5.3.
Hypertext Help System. A major new module is the InfoExplorer, which is a hypertext DBMS search engine that handles both text and graphics. It is used with to access information and online help from the Hypertext Information Base, a documentation database for the RS/6000. The CD-ROM version of the HIB includes graphics. Users can also use InfoExplorer as a customizing and system management tool.
AIXwindows Environment/6000. This is the official name for IBM’s new “state-of-the-art graphical user interface environment” based on OSF/Motif with enhanced X-Windows and National Language Support. It also supports SGI’s GL (Graphics Library) and Adobe’s Display PostScript. Although bundled with all of the POWERstations, it is available separately for $500.
AIX NextStep Environment/6000. The NextStep UNIX-shell and Interface Builder will be available as an option from IBM in Q3 of 1990 for $500. It package also includes StepStone’s Objective-C Compiler. It will not run on the 120 MB drive systems due to storage constraints.
JSB MultiView for AIX for RISC System/6000. This $1000 package provides a multitasking windowing environment that runs on up to 32 attached ASCII terminals. Each terminal can run up to six logical sessions. Available Q2. Supports desktop accessories (phone and address books, card filer and clipboard), customized user configurators, hotkeying between windows, and cut & paste facilities.
AIX Xstation Manager/6000. This package allows multiple Xstation 120s to be attached to any of the RS 6000 line. The cost is $500 per attached terminal.
Languages and Tools. Various language libraries, compilers, utilities and toolkits were announced that support FORTRAN, Pascal, COBOL, ADA and C. A special graphics program, the AIX Personal graPHIGS Programming Interface/6000 version 2 allows advanced graphics capabilities.
Connectivity. Packages are available to support SNA, 3270, 3278, SNA network Management.
Emulation. The AIX Personal Computer Simulator/6000 costs $500, $1000 or $2000 depending on which class of RS/6000 it will run on. Its simulates PC-DOS version 3.3. Multiple, unmodified DOS sessions can be run in either AIXwindows for a single user or across multiple terminals for multiple users. However, OS/2 is NOT supported!
IBM Goals & Directions
Get Dominant Market Share. IBM is very serious about the $6 billion US workstation market. They currently have less than a 2% market share 4 years after entering the market with the original RT series. IBM execs are stating a goal of one-third market share by 1993. The new RS/6000 series will be a very good start in achieving that lofty goal.
Blow Them Away On Performance, Features and Product Line. If IBM’s benchmarks are valid, the new line is extremely powerful in terms of raw speed as well as being a complete solution. The product line is significantly broader and deeper than any of its competitors’ and the price/ performance ratio is roughly two to three times that of Sun, the market leader. The base POWERstation 320 is only $1000 more than a comparable Sun SPARCstation, but is rated at 27.5 MIPS vs 12 and is better/more expandable in almost every respect. (However, Sun has many more applications available and much of IBM’s announcement is vaporware for the next 2-9 months, so Sun will have some time to react and adjust.)
Blow Them Away with Service & Support. IBM is upping the customer service ante in the workstation industry substantially. With “SystemXtra” service, IBM is offering 24 hour -7 days a week service. Customers can call the Technical Service Center at 800-IBM-XTRA. The TSC handles all questions and servicing regarding hardware and software. SystemXtra includes on-site AIX systems software installation, twice a year maintenance and yearly upgrades. IBM has also become aggressive on service pricing—SystemXtra costs substantially less than less comprehensive service programs available from Sun and DEC. The monthly SystemXtra fee for a one-year contract on a single POWERstation 320 starts at $365 and goes down to $272. For the models 520, 530, 540 and 730 monthly fees range from $712 down to $518. Additional service programs called Network Support and Multiple Vendor Services - Repair Coordination are available optionally.
Bundled, Complete Systems. IBM has changed its pricing philosophy for the new line. In the past, products have been stripped down to achieve artificially low “entry-level” pricing. However, all of the RS/6000 prices are for fully configured working systems including mouse, keyboard, graphics adapter, CRT, and healthy amounts of RAM and storage capacity. Even the operating systems and interface software are included, a major departure for IBM. In fact, preloaded disk drives are available on 16 different System Package bundles.
F.U.D. the Customers. By preannouncing vaporware products, IBM is once again attempting to “freeze” the market and discourage buyers from making any purchase decisions for the next few months. There are some big questions as to when and how the competition will react. The current press quotes many workstation execs as being rather unruffled. In fact, some claim to be happy that IBM is “legitimizing the market” and expect increased business. We think this is just a public relations ploy and that they have a lot to worry about. (In fact, it was reported in trade journals that Sun’s PR people were recognized at the San Francisco IBM announcement disguised as reporters from a non-existent publication called Computer Publicity News.)
IBM Must Keep Its Promises. On the other hand, IBM DOES need to keep all its promises, i.e ship the products on time and bug-free, meet the performance claims and quickly develop a substantial software base. Failure to do so will give competitors ammunition and more reaction time. To get software going, IBM has already seeded over 350 customers and developers.
If You Can’t Beat ‘em, Join ‘em. IBM has adopted many key technologies from its competitors in an all out assault on the workstation market. Superscalar architectures, separate memory buses, SCSI, Display PostScript, 3-D graphics, 24-bit color, CD-ROM, 8mm tape backup and, of course, a graphical user interface are all significant new technological directions for IBM workstations that will clearly enhance its position in this market.
Precursor for PCs? Is this a harbinger of things to come in the PC market as well? Since many of the enhancements are based on Micro Channel Architecture and SCSI and since IBM’s workstation and PC divisions are now one entity, we believe the answer is “definitely.” We think many of these technologies will appear as options in the PS/2 line within the next 6-18 months.
Implications To Apple
Implications For Apple’s High-Performance PCs. The POWERstation 320, IBM’s low-end color system, is list priced at $15,030. See Appendix A for a comparison to Apple’s Macintosh II fx in similar configurations. Although our base price is lower, the high cost of our memory and peripherals puts us in the same ballpark. However, we don't think IBM's workstation poses a huge threat to Apple’s high-end products in the short run for the following reasons:
• IBM does not have a compelling business software offering for its RISC machine. It may be quite a while (or never!) before it has inexpensive, high-quality productivity software like Wingz, MacWrite II, and 4th Dimension.
• The Macintosh is easier to setup and configure. Workstations such as the RS/6000 are targeted at a technical audience. As a result, full-time system administrators may be needed to setup, configure and maintain them.
• Unix has not yet achieved significant penetration in Apple's core markets.
• The RS/6000 will be sold through entirely different channels than Apple products.
Because of its price and limited application availability, this machine does not pose much of a sales threat to Macintosh in the short run. However, in the long run—assuming IBM gets more productivity software, lowers its prices, and Open Software Foundation finishes the Motif graphical interface—the bottom of the RS/6000 line might become more of a competitor to Apple’s high end products. Apple should encourage customers comparing the RS/6000 with a Macintosh to determine what they can accomplish with the whole system and available software, and not just look at the processor speed.
In the case of large systems integrators, the ability to provide what appears to be consistency from the desktop (Model 120 - X-Terminal) through high-end machines (Model 730 @ 41 MIPS), could be seen as more advantageous than the consistency inherent in Macintosh.
Implications for A/UX 2.0. This announcement strengthens OSF Motif, which is probably the leading competitor to A/UX. However, Apple maintains a number of advantages of A/UX over AIX 3.0 with Motif:
• Drastically larger number of productivity applications
• Easier to use. We believe the Macintosh user interface is more intuitive than Motif.
• Lower entry cost. A/UX 2.0 will run on an SE/30 for $6,200. The minimum configuration to run AIX 3.0 on the RS/6000 is $12,995.
• Less expensive applications. Most Macintosh applications range in price from $100 to $500. In contrast, most workstation applications cost much more. Ingres Version 6 relation al database, the only productivity application for the RS/6000 that we can obtain pricing on, is priced at $5,000 for a single user.
Higher-Ed Market Implications. The main impact on Apple will be in Higher Ed accounts where IBM will be very aggressive with 60% discounts or higher. Price comparisons with Apple equipment will be nearly useless in this market since IBM has vowed to make “Special Bid” situations frequently, i.e. donations, loans, free service, whatever it takes. They will also be seeding university developers with “loaner systems” for up to a year. Several prestigious institutions have been using RS/6000s for some time and testimonials from them are being featured in IBM’s marketing literature. Nearly all of the available software, however, has been ported from the RT, a major failure with theHigher Education market. In fact, the RS/6000s will test academia since many have sworn never to buy IBM. However, at these aggressive prices, educators might change their minds.
APPENDIX:
HARDWARE PRICING, CONFIGURATIONS & SPECIFICATIONS
NOTE: All prices listed are from IBM’s Price List dated February 15, 1990. These are configured system prices. Discounts from IBM’s direct sales force typically range from 25 to 50%. Certain Educational discounts go as deep as 65%. All systems include 2 serial ports, 1 parallel port, 1 3.5-inch 1.44 MB floppy drive and POWER architecture with 4-8 MCA slots and 2-48 memory slots.
POWERstation 320 — DESKTOP WORKSTATIONS
Standard configuration, unless otherwise noted: 1280 x 1024 display, Ethernet, keyboard, 3-button mouse, AIX Version 3 (1-2 users) and graphical user interface, software service and one-year hardware warranty service.
• POWERstation 320, 16" color display, 3D graphics processor, 16MB RAM, 320MB
disk; $25,765
• POWERstation 320, 19" color display, 3D graphics processor, 16MB RAM, 320MB
disk; $27,065
24-BIT 3D COLOR
• POWERstation 320, 16" color display, 3D graphics processor, 16MB RAM, 320MB
disk; $31,765
• POWERstation 320, 19" color display, 3D graphics processor, 16MB RAM, 320MB
disk; $33,065
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POWERstation 520 — DESKTOP WORKSTATIONS
Standard configuration, unless otherwise noted: 1280 x 1024 display, Ethernet, SCSI, keyboard, 3-button mouse, AIX Version 3 (1-2 users) and graphical user interface, software service and one-year hardware warranty service.
This is a small, inexpensive intelligent terminal designed to be attached via LANs to RS/6000 systems. It comes with EtherNet standard and offers optional Token-Ring. Both LANs can be used simultaneously. The Xstation 120 features separate processors for graphics and I/O functions, up to 8 MB of RAM and local printer support and font caching. Operation requires Xstation Manager software in the host RS/6000 which costs an additional $500 per terminal.
• Xstation 120, 19" color display, 4MB add'l. RAM, 1.5MB add'l. video RAM, 256
shades of gray; $9,686
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DISK DRIVES. 120 MB is the minimum drive size available; it’s a 3.5-incher with 23 ms access time. Other sizes include:
• 320 MB, 3.5-inch, 12.5 ms, (no price found)
• 355 MB, 5.25-inch, 16 ms, $5300
• 640 MB, 2 3.5-inch, 12.5 ms, $11,000
• 670 MB, 5.25, 18 ms, $8650
• 857 MB, 5.25, 11.2 ms, $14,500
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OTHER: Dozens of new Micro Channel adapter boards are available for graphics, I/O, Terminal connections and communications functions. Many new plotters, digitizers, graphics tablets and modems were also announced.
