Re: IBM and Amdahl history (Re: What is an N-bit machine?)

scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

On Fri, 29 Nov 2024 07:22:28 GMT, Anton Ertl wrote:
>

Legacy software is keeping Unisys in business to this day ...

>
Remember where Unisys came from: it's the merger of two separate mainframe
companies, Burroughs and Sperry.

...

So what of the "legacy software" from either Burroughs or Sperry (or both)
is contributing to the bottom line of present-day Unisys?

>
The UIS 10-K is available from the SEC website.  Feel free to look
it up.

https://ir.unisys.com/static-files/036649dc-6fad-467e-88e0-fa8c7e736b2e

Unfortunately (but as usual), the categories are such that I cannot
identify how much revenue (and profit) is based on legacy software and
how much is based on something else.  The categories given on page 29
are:

|* Digital Workplace Solutions (DWS), which provides modern and
|  traditional workplace solutions;
|
|* Cloud, Applications & Infrastructure Solutions (CA&I), which
|  provides digital platform, applications and infrastructure
|  solutions; and
|
|* Enterprise Computing Solutions (ECS), which provides solutions that
|  harness secure, continuous high-intensity computing and enable digital
|  services through software-defined operating environments.

The third (revenue 648M in 2023, and 61.2% of gross profit) probably
includes the business based on legacy software; the traditional
workplace solutions of the DWS part may also have to do with legacy
software.

In any case, Unisys still offers Clearpath hardware and both OS2200
(Univac legacy) and MCP (Burroughs legacy), but the hardware is
AMD64-based and the old hardware is emulated.  Fujitsu still offers
S390 hardware, but it's not clear if that is a descendent of Amdahl.

An overview of what is still going on in the mainframe business is
<https://arcanesciences.com/os2200/app1.html>.

Another interesting comparison is VMS Software Inc. (VSI), which took
over the VMS legacy in 2015.  They are "150+ collegues" and have "2K
clients"; Unisys have fewer MCP and OS2200 clients according to the
site above, but Unisys had 16300 employees in 2021.  Maybe the
mainframe clients of Unisys need a bigger support force than the VSI
clients, or maybe the Unisys employees mostly work on other things.

- anton
--
'Anyone trying for "industrial quality" ISA should avoid undefined behavior.'
  Mitch Alsup, <c17fcd89-f024-40e7-a594-88a85ac10d20o@googlegroups.com>