IBM Corp is tipped to attempt to rein back Hewlett-Packard Co’s surging high-end business by coming out with a new top-end model of the RS/6000 next week. The machine will reportedly do 100.3 Specmarks courtesy of a new implementation of the processor in 0.5 micron CMOS. Expected to be called the Powerserver 970 and costing little more than the current 75.8 Specmark Model 950, it is said to be a rack-mount machine costing around $97,000 for an entry-level configuration with 64Mb memory and 2.2Gb disk. It is also expected to use the new 80Mbytes-per-second version of the Micro Channel and to have 16 slots against eight on the 950.
