Consett, County Durham-based Integrated Micro Products Ltd – now equally at home across the Atlantic following its acquisition of Parallel Computers from General Automation Inc – has introduced what it claims is the industry’s first multiprocessing computer system built around the racy 50MHz version of Motorola’s 68030 microprocessor and previewed in August (CI No 1,251). The machine is being rated at between $2,000 and $4,000 per MIPS, and comes in the form of a board called JT-Cache, which packs the 50MHz chip with cache and control logic. The JT-Cache is a daughter board that plugs into the company’s existing line of 25 MHz computer systems, thereby doubling performance to 10 MIPS from 5 MIPS per processor, the company claims. Only the system components that must run at 50MHz do so, minimising complexity and cost. The company says the enhanced Unix System V.3-compatible MJ system is expandable in a modular fashion, delivering linear performance increases to a maximum of 80 MIPS processing power with support for up to 256 users. The new system will be offered OEM, to systems integrators and resellers. 50MHz MJ systems are from $40,000, and the 50MHz JT-Cache upgrade for existing MJ systems is $8,000. Ships are scheduled for next month.
