Informix Licensing

The company I work for currently have Informix SE 4.1 and ISQL 4.1 which is used as the underlying database for a 4GL development tool called TODAY. As the number of users on this system have increased, the performance of the computer has decreased substantially and as a result, I am in the process of gathering prices for a new box. Currently the computer is a '486DX/50MHz running SCO Unix. I am always one for keeping up to date with the latest technology and aquired quotes for a Pentium 90Mhz computer system. The directors of the company all agreed that the upgrade was required and I had "verbal" approval for the purchase of the computer. This came to around $16,000 (AUS). BUT.....Changing the informix licenses from a '486 to a Pentium computer worked out to cost nearly $30,000 (AUS). This combined with the cost of replacing the machine has put the possiblity of a medium company moving forward technologically, far out of reach. The Informix dealer who we purchased the products from could not even tell us if their was a binary change involved or not. I can only assume that their isn't. Can someone please tell me if this sort of cost is something that we have to live with??? It wouldn't be so bad paying the money if their was a REAL benefit for doing so, BUT we don't even get advised on new products, upgrades for our existing products and support is basically non-existent. Does everyone who want to upgrade their computers have to fork out $30,000 just for the priviledge of changing from a '486 to Pentium???? If anyone can confirm OR deny that this is the case, I would appreciate your comments. -- ********************************************************************** Greg Wake Geographe Software Engineering Bunbury 6230 greg@gsesco.DIALix.oz.au Western Australia