Making good on its promise earlier this month (CI No 2,407) Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Encore Computer Corp has given first details on the first Digital Equipment Corp Alpha AXP RISC-based member of its Infinity R/T family of real-time computers. The Infinity R/T Model 300 uses a 150MHz Alpha AXP microprocessor, and has an 80960 co-processor to provide input-output and interrupt capabilities independent of CPU operation. It includes real-time clocks, directly connected interrupts, VME input-output device support, Ethernet, four asynchronous ports and an SCSI-2 bus interface. System software includes the OSF/1 Unix, and binary compatibility with DEC’s Alpha AXP OSF/1-based systems is supported, with over 2,500 third party applications currently claimed to be available. Multiple Alpha AXP Infinity R/T computing nodes can be tightly coupled with Encore’s patented open Reflective Memory system – Encore’s contribution to the partnership with DEC – to give unprecedented performance and scalability. Reflective Memory can also be used for tight coupling of Alpha AXP Infinity R/T nodes to Encore’s proprietary Concept Series systems, the Motorola Inc 88000-based Infinity R/T nodes and Encore’s RSX family of real-time computers. The architecture is tailored for optimum performance in applications such as flight simulation, large scale data acquisition and control, energy simulation, image processing, telemetry and real-time video processing. Duke Power Co, somewhere in South Carolina is the first customer for the R/T 300. It comes in desk-side and rack-mounted configurations. A fully configured mid-range Model 300 with 150MHz Alpha AXP, 64Mb high speed memory, 1Gb SCSI-2 disk, 4Gb Digital Audio Tape drive, 600Mb CD-ROM, all enclosed in a modular and scalable cabinet combined with OSF/1 Unix costs $59,950. Volume shipments are set for next quarter.
