>> If the PCMs were forced out of the industry by actions taken by >> IBM, then the counter claim by PSI may prevail in a very big >> way.
Unfortunately, none of the exiting PCMs made that claim. Simply that the business case for their own 64-bit processors didn't fly. >> Particularly with a Democratically controlled White House in the USofA. > ITYM congress, but what does that have to do with a civil suit? No, White House. Anti-trust proceedings take YEARS and would certainly outlive the current Administration. When Ronnie got to the White House, one of his first-day actions was to can the Johnson Administration's anti-trust proceedings against IBM. They continued in Europe and eventually resulted in the 1984 Undertaking, long since voided. Shrub wouldn't entertain it and by the time Hillary gets in it's all moot anyway. I doubt very much whether any such anti-trust proceedings would succeed today, or even that they would be seriously considered. The market has changed a lot in two decades - it's barely recognisable. And if IBM carries its patents case it won't matter anyway, since there is a special provision in anti-trust law that would allow IBM to refuse licences to a patent infringer. There's a risk inherent in all litigation, but anyone who builds a business case on winning a postulated anti-trust case is a fool. For me the killer is the business case. We're really talking about the $100k machine space. So - $100k off the customer, minus the cost of a Superdome leaves how much? This is VERY different from the old days, when Amdahl was earning $1m net per machine. What's PSI's wage bill per month - you can get an idea from the salaries posted in want ads in various places? Double it to get personnel costs. You basically have to sell at least three machines per employee per year just to cover direct wage costs (forgetting operating costs and paying the VCs back) - and as it stands, T3 would have to sell all of them. How many tServers did T3 sell in its first year with the product? How many z800s and z890s has IBM sold, and what percentage of that do you have to take? What percentage of that market is covered by your business partner(s)? What chance do you stand of signing up further business partners to cover the rest of the globe, given that you need a company with in-depth IBM mainframe skills - i.e., an IBM Business Partner - and you're being sued by IBM. A lot of IBM resellers are actually Mom and Pop businesses - or husband and wife. And a lot of these businesses are very strongly associated with one individual - an ex-IBM salesman or SE who wanted to do his/her own thing. They probably have a bank on board and have employees to think about. Are they going to risk poisoning their core business relationship with IBM? Then it gets competitive. What if FSI and IBM get their act together again? Flex-ES has things like ECSP:VSE, emulated printer support, FakeTape, built-in networking support - all things that help a LOT with tight budgets. It's the same cake that UMX Technologies baked, this time iced with a lawsuit. I very much doubt that IBM is seriously worried about PSI as a competitor. It's likely more about the damage it's doing to the market, especially the continual "we're not far from shipping, honest" that's been going on for more than two years now. If IBM can get a summary judgement next week, at least it will have the monkey off its back for the end of fourth quarter. Amdahl is dead. It should lie down. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
