HM Systems Plc, the London NW company that has won C3 Inc’s approval for its 80486 boards (CI No 1,437), has no plans to go public just yet, because the market is too volatile due mainly to customer worries about bugs in 80486 boards. HM is shipping 80486 boards in the hundreds rather than thousands but managing director Tony Harris expects orders to pick up in the fourth quarter and by next year he says the 80486 boards will have stolen the market from 33MHz 80386 boards. The 80486 boards are scarce because of the complexity of the chip Intel has had to iron out bugs. This keeps prices artificially high Tony Harris expects to see prices coming down when production increases, probably in the fourth quarter. HM manufactures the vital parts of the boards themselves and buys in components such as memory boards. He says that in terms of performance, one board is much like another. It has a 10-employee office in California for US sales; back home it makes most of its sales UKP7m is the target for this year, direct to customers.
