Vertos Ltd is another young start-up with two Taiwanese investors, including personal computer clone vendor Elite Group Computer Systems Ltd, and another unidentified concern with manufacturing resources outside the US that are apparently at Vertos’ disposal. Vertos, currently employing only 10 people but ramping up quickly, is already divided into two business units – a PC Systems Division and an Advanced Systems Division responsible for emerging marketplaces, hence the Sparc effort. The personal computer division will be building its own Intel boxes but has also been designed to absorb Sparcs as they become commodities. Right now, however, Advanced Systems is responsible for the company’s anticipated 25MHz LSI-based Sparcstation 1 clone, expected to go into beta test after the Comdex show, and a Sparcstation 2, whose chip is still subject to evaluation. Vertos expects to develop three channels – high-end technical personal computer resellers whose margins are narrowing, the regional and even national distributors that Sun cut off, and the European market where it’s projecting 50% of its business will lie. Initial volumes, of course, will be small. In the light of its European aspirations, the company is banking on ergonomic added value. Like Sparktrum Microsystems, Vertos professes interest in doing notebooks.
