San Jose, California-based BT Tymnet Inc, the British Telecom subsidiary that provides the value-added network Tymnet which is used by, among others, IBM and Sears in their Prodigy joint venture, has introduced a new desktop communication processor the PXL – and announced a long-term manufacturing agreement with Comptronix to build and assemble the new product. It consolidates all the features of BT Tymnet’s Pico, Micro 3 and Micro 4 engines into one desktop communications processor with a 5.5 by 14.5 by 13.5 footprint. Priced from $7,500 to $12,000, the PXL uses a single motherboard and backplane architec-ture with eight available option slots along with a 32-bit microprocessor and 1Mb of RAM. Fully configured, the thing supports up to 32 asynchronous devices or up to 16 synchronous devices at speeds up to 19.2Kbps. And moving swiftly to extricate itself from agreements with McDonnell Douglas’ Computer Systems Corp for the first time BT Tymnet hardware will be manufactured by a company other than McDonnell Douglas, for the company also announced that Comptronix will build BT Tymnet’s new PXL product as well as the Compact XL, a mid-range communications processor.
