ICL doesn't look back as VME comes of age

ICL's VME mainframe operating system has outlived flared trousers(twice) and flying pickets. Linda Leung looks at its past and present.

Some 21 years ago this month, ICL launched its VME mainframe operating system. When its development began in 1969, ICL had a difficult decision to make. Should it continue with the many product lines that it inherited from the merger, or build a system from scratch?

The company chose the latter, and produced what has been universally accepted as a technically advanced product.

Philip Carnelley, analyst at researchers Ovum, believes it was, nevertheless, a grave mistake. A change of architecture meant major upheaval for users of George III, VME's predecessor. 'When ICL launched its new operating system, it was very avant-garde and the applications were not there,' said Carnelley. 'People thought that if they had to migrate to a new architecture then they may as well change to IBM. ICL made a very brave decision.'

The claimed technical superiority of VME did not help ICL make its presence felt in the IBM community, which was already sizable.

Brian Warboys, one of VME's designers and now professor of software engineering at the University of Manchester, claimed: 'ICL was not big enough to compete with IBM.'

ICL relied too heavily on the fact that it could milk protected markets through the UK Government's 'Buy-British' policy of the 1970s and early 1980s. After the policy was lifted, ICL struggled against Big Blue's considerable marketing power.

So what of the next 21 years? ICL is working on putting Intel processors in its next generation of VME mainframes - a project known as the Millennium Programme.

Brian Procter, chief architect at ICL's High Performance Systems group, admits ICL does not expect the programme to attract new users, but said it is a way to 'ensure that we can continue to supply systems to our customer base and that VME is still relevant to them'.

Ed Wilson, head of technology at the Inland Revenue, agreed: 'The Millennium Programme makes it more comfortable for us to use VME. Without a coherent strategy there would be a gradual erosion of the VME base. ICL would cease investing in it and we would be left stranded.'

Wilson believes the project could give VME a new lease of life, by adopting a new range of third-party applications software through running NT and Unix alongside VME, and giving users of those systems access to VME technologies.

ICL is all too aware that without a significant band of applications software and marketing dollars, VME will be relegated to the history books, like flying pickets.