Hewlett-Packard duly unveiled its three new models in the HP9000 family yesterday – in the UK as well as the US. All three use a new implementation of the Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture RISC in NMOS III technology, and the existing Model 840 with the original TTL RISC CPU has been enhanced as the 840S. The HP9000/825SRX workstation with the Renaissance three-dimensional solid modelling graphics co-processor, 19 colour display putting up 1,280 by 1,024 pixels, an eight plane frame buffer, 8Mb CPU and Ethernet interface, with a 16-user licence for HP-UX – in case you want to hang another terminal off your workstation – is UKP55,000. The 825S, which supports two to 24 active users and a maximum of 64 terminals, costs UKP38,000 with 8Mb processor, floating point co-processor, 16 channel multiplexer, five slots, and 16-user HP-UX. The 850S is claimed to support from 60 to 300 active terminals but at present has input-output support for only 96. With 16Mb processor, six channel multiplexer, 10 slots and 32-user HP-UX licence it is UKP175,000. The 825SRX is available in two months, the 825S in four months and the 850S in six months. The 840S, available now, supports 24 to 96 active users, takes up to 128 lines, and is UKP76,000 with 8Mb CPU, floating point co-processor, disk interface, six channel multiplexer and access port. Hewlett-Packard rates the 825SRX at 8 MIPS, the 82%S at 5 MIPS, the 840S at 7.5 MIPS and the 850S at 12 MIPS – but RISC MIPS are misleading. The company claims the new machines offer 50% better price performance than comparable DEC offerings. HP-UX has been brought up to Unix System V.2 level, and includes Berkeley extensions for communications support.
