Motorola Inc’s Motorola Computer Group yesterday duly announced the PowerStack family of RISC personal computers, based on the PowerPC 603 microprocessor, as well as servers and multi-user computer systems based on the PowerPC 603 and 604 microprocessors. The initial members of the PowerStack family include the model DT603-66, a 66MHz model. New PowerStack server products include the Series E Model E603-66P, a 66MHz 603 entry-level workgroup server with support for up to 32 users; and the E604-100P, using the 100MHz PowerPC 604, capable of supporting up to 128 users. Motorola has licensed IBM Corp’s AIX Unix, and this is the only operating system currently available, although Motorola says vaguely that some models will support Windows NT. The machines use the Peripheral Component Interconnect bus and offer a variety of memory, SCSI device and PCI expansion options. Future high-end multi-user systems will offer VMEbus in addition to PCI. The PowerStack RISC PC comes in either a desktop low-profile enclosure or in a mini-tower which adds one PCI and one AT expansion slot. It offers up to 6Gb of internal disk. The desktop has 16Mb to 128Mb memory and 4Gb of disk, PCI local bus, three slots; an 8-bit SCSI-2 bus; an Ethernet interface; a floppy disk, IDE port; and mouse and keyboard ports. It takes SuperVGA screens up to 1,280 bits by 1,024 lines in 256 colours. The desktop begins at $3,300, the Model E603-66P is from $6,000 with 16Mb and 1Gb disk, floppy disk and CD-ROM. An entry E604-100P begins at $8,000. The new 601-based Series MP family of high-end, high-performance symmetric multiprocessing servers are deskside systems with a full range of scalable and upgradable performance options, including two- to eight-processor operation.
