High Level Hardware Ltd has launched a Unix-based text processing system to run on the Orion 32-bit bit-slice minicomputer. The system uses the Transcript software from the developers of Postscript, Adobe Systems of Palo Alto, California, and includes the troff, ditroff and plot Unix facilities. It is integrated into Unix 4.2BSD spooling architecture. High Level Hardware reckons that its system will be a substantial seller because the powerful typeseting features of Unix have been restricted to a few people in the past because of the expensive typesetter required, whereas most people should be able to afford its system, which at UKP5,495 which comes with software and a laser printer. High Level Hardware of Headington, Oxford says that it has made already 10 sales of the system since launch just before Christmas.
