The market for big Unix servers is valued at $3.47 billion.

The company is said to have an installed base of around 30,000 Unix servers in Europe.

Other strong areas included Unix servers and storage systems, both in increasing demand by companies operating web sites.

Who cares that most consumers wouldn't know a midrange Unix server from a refrigerator?

The client terminal would connect to a local Unix server typically hosted on site by the financial institution.

It is mainly used for maintenance of multi-user environments such as network or Unix servers.

Computing systems - which include work stations, desktops, laptops, Unix servers, storage and software - grew 15 percent from a year earlier.

The company cited strong sales of personal computers and Unix servers used on corporate networks and the Internet.

Strong performers included mainframes, Unix servers and Shark storage gear.

Its base configuration, a Unix server, two developer licenses and eight end-user licences, lists for $21,000.