The first product arising from the Apricot Computers Plc acquisi tion of graphics and defence systems specialist Sigmex Interna tional Plc back in May (CI No 919) was revealed yesterday by the new company, Apricot Sigmex Ltd. The AS 8400 GKS graphics work station is a combination of the Sigmex 6312 graphics card running as a sub-system on a modified Apricot Xen-i 386: the Sigmex board includes a 68020 processor running at 25MHz and the specialist ACRTC graphics processor from Hitachi – there is also a dual 68020 configuration – and according to Apricot group chief execu tive Roger Foster, the combination brings high performance graph ics to the sub-UKP10,000 market for the first time. The worksta tion runs GKS-based graphics tools and Sigmex graphics library tools written for its 6000 Series graphics terminals. Use of the Xen-i base, which includes MS-DOS and Xenix as standard and OS/2 as an option, enables the use of non-graphics application soft ware. Apricot Sigmex is integrating its hardware with the Apri cot kit at its Horsham, West Sussex factory, and says that it will continue to deal with customers direct, rather than going through Apricot’s distribution channels. Prime application areas include architecture, cartography, molecular design and image processing, and defence applications. Cost for an AS 8400 with 17 high resolution monitor, dual processor graphics board, 2Mb RAM and 50Mb disk is UKP9,950, and Foster claims it enjoys a closer coupling of hardware and software than competing and similarly priced Sun 386is and DEC VAXstation 2000s.
