P.M. BRIEFING : IBM, Digital Unveil Mainframes

International Business Machines Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp. unveiled new mainframe computers today aimed at boosting demand in the sluggish $45-billion market.

The new products will boost competition in a market dominated by IBM.

The improved products may also win back customers to the big-sized computers, which have been surrounded on shop floors and offices by increasingly powerful minicomputers.

Digital, which has been IBM’s peer in the minicomputer market, is making a bold move with its mainframe effort.

Digital’s 9000 computer will be its first entry into mainframe-class computing while IBM’s addition to its 3090 series and related software is geared to defend its dominant 70% share of the market, analysts said.

IBM introduced 16 new ES/3090 models, 13 of which are immediately available, ranging in price from $830,000 for the 110J to $12.9 million for the 600J.