Today Hewlett-Packard is expected to announce 16 new machines to replace the whole of its low-end and mid-range proprietary 3000 and Unix-based 9000 lines. The new systems use the latest version of Hewlett’s Precision Architecture RISC chip, also to be found in the lightning-fast 700s, thus enabling the company to offer a scalable range from the desktop to the enterprise-wide data centre. The new one-chip VLSI CMOS-based boxes will replace the majority of Hewlett’s NMOS predecessors over the next three to six months including those in the 9000 Series 820, 830, 840 and low 850 – the Unix-based 808 and 815 become obsolete at once. The new Unix-based 9000 series 800 servers start with the deskside 807S priced at just under $13,000 for a reputed 15 transaction per second performance. Next in line are the other desktop models: the 817S – $20,000 for 30tps – and the 837S – $42,000 for 40tps. The physically larger expanded package, including a single integrated input/output card and high density 1.3Gb, 5.25 drives, starts with the 827S – $25,000 for 30tps, followed by the 847S $65,000 for 42tps, and the 857S – $95,000 for 44tps. The two-slot desksides become available in August; the six to twelve slot expanded packages in September. Hewlett-Packard claims a 5.7 price-performance advantage over IBM’s AS/400 Model DO6 with its 30tps 817 deskside model, while it manages a best offering 2.1 price-performance advantage over the RS/6000 Model 320 comes from the 66tps 817 deskside. All systems come with integrated disk drives and high capacity DAT drives, offering a maximum storageof 2.6Gb on the small boxes, 5.2Gb on their big brothers. External mass storage goes from 1.39Gb to 47.89Gb. The 64-bit floating point co-processor is optional with 817S, 827S and 837S but standard on 847S, 857S.
