January 30, 1998 (TOKYO) -- NEC Corp. decided to use Intel Corp.'s microprocessor code-named Merced, a next-generation 64-bit device, in its Parallel ACOS Series mainframe computers, according to industry sources.

The Tokyo-based computer company intends to reduce development costs.

According to the sources, NEC plans to use Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT 64-bit operating system, for those computers. NEC is studying a technique to emulate the operating system running on conventional mainframes to enable the NT applications to run in addition to the existing system resources, the sources said.

The current NEC Parallel ACOS Series features three models. According to the sources, as a first step NEC plans to use the Merced microprocessor and Windows NT for a machine superseding the AX7300V, a small-scale ACOS-2 model. If NEC achieves satisfactory processing performance, the same method will be applied to the machine to follow the PX7500, a medium-scale ACOS-4 model.

Nihon Unisys Ltd. is the first producer of mainframes in Japan to use an Intel microprocessor to emulate a mainframe operating system on Windows NT. It began shipping the HMP NX4200 model in September 1997. MCP/AS is the operating system used for the model.

(Nikkei Computer)