Apple Computer Inc is to strip out the bits that won’t be needed in its Quadra machines to create its first-ever dedicated server, MacWeek reports. The 68040-based machine is being designed for Apple’s A/UX version of Unix and will inherit much of the Quadra 900’s architecture, the paper says, and is expected to be announced in October for shipping as early as January 1993. It will be the first machine to emerge from Apple’s Enterprise Systems Division, formed last year to develop high-end business systems. It will support client Macs running Systems 6 and 7. Bits to be eliminated from the Quadra are likely to include the on-board 24-bit-colour graphics. Apple also plans to introduce two low-cost colour Macs early next year, the paper says. One will have a built-in 8-bit, 10 colour display, 16MHz 68030 processor, 4Mb memory and 40Mb disk for under $1,300. A more powerful colour Macintosh, using a 25MHz 68030 and aimed at the multimedia market with at least 4Mb memory, a 40Mb disk and 14 colour Trinitron display with 640 by 480 pixel resolution is expected to cost under $1,900. And Apple could introduce its first Personal Digital Assistant at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago next month, MacWeek says. The device uses an infra-red link to connect to a desktop computer or to other Personal Digital Assistants, and it will use a low-power RISC processor – Cambridge, UK-based Advanced RISC Machines Ltd’s ARM600 presumably, a 3 by 5 supertwist but not backlit screen and will have no other input devices except a pen. It is said that it will be able to recognise cursive handwriting and gestures entered with the pen. It should cost less than $700.
