NEC Corp is out to become a top-five Intel-based server vendor by 1999. It promises a full and revamped line within the next six months that offers compatible quality to offerings from such vendors as Dell Computer Corp, but with considerable price advantages. Moving toward that goal, NEC has introduced the ES1200, the newest addition to its Express5800 line. The ES1200 is aimed at small businesses and workgroups with its $2,300 price. It comes with a Pentium II running at 233MHz-300MHz with 512Kb of ECC memory on an integrated L2 cache. It offers 27Gb of disk storage in three external drive bays. Maurice Voce, director of channel marketing for NEC’s server group, says that new additions to the product line, coupled with the company’s move toward a more direct sales model in August, will bring the success necessary to make it a top-tier player. NEC has also been working with Microsoft Corp on enhancements to Windows NT. The two aim to integrate NEC’s mainframe and server technologies with NT Server and Back Office (CI No 3,233). The first fruits of this co-operation should appear in version 5.0 of NT, Voce says. NEC also announced Management Suite 1.2, features ESM manager and gives network administrators the option to monitor server activities from either a proprietary client or a standard web browser.
