The Hillsboro, Oregon Systems Division of Intel Corp has diversified into a new market with a range of AT-compatible 80386-based machines that are powerful enough to be converted into high-performance network file servers. The new model, better known as the MicroComputer Model 303, has 10 expansion slots, a 33MHz 80386 motherboard, 4Mb of main memory, and 64Kb of cache memory, along with eight half-height peripheral bays to support the increased storage demands of high-performance applications like servers, CAD/CAM and graphics. Intel is marketing the Model 303 to OEM customers that are reselling them into the general market, bundled with third-party software and peripherals, as a file server in a pedestal or desk side configuration for business and technical applications, according to Electronic News. One such OEM customer using the pedestal Model 303 and the upcoming 80486 model as a file server is the Seattle, Washington-based subsidiary of MicroAge Computer Corp, PGI. This company buys the processors from Intel, bundles them with additional hardware from Altos Computer Systems and Mitsubishi Electric, adds software, and then resells the kits to more than 400 value added resellers in the business and technical communities. It is converting the 303s into file servers by adding Unix-based operating systems and communications hardware and software, and claims it will have such file servers available in July, with an 80486 version ready by late in the first quarter of next year. Other OEM customers believed to be interested in the 303 include Unisys Corp and AT&T Co. However, Unisys’ only comment on the situation was that it would incorporate Intel’s 33MHz 80386 and 80486 in future workstation products, but declined to say whether it would also buy the Model 303. AT&T is widely believed to have closed a multi-million dollar OEM deal for Model 303s too.
