Meantime King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based Human Designed Systems Inc – in process of being acquired by a company formed for the purpose of buying a computer firm (CI No 2,560) – announced a new family of X Window terminals, claiming that the top model, with performance of over 250,000 XStones, is the highest-performing in the industry. The new ViewStation Xcelerator Series, also include options for live video and audio with built-in connections for a camera, video recorder or television tuner for applications such as video teleconferencing, TV in a window and computer-based training. All are built around Intel Corp’s 80960 RISC, and the line starts at $1,100 for a fully equipped colour X terminal with 1,024 by 768 resolution, and the company claims 25% better performance at 30% lower prices than the newest models from Network Computing Devices Inc. The entry model is the ViewStation Xcelerator LX with 100,000 XStone performance at from $750 for the terminal base to $2,700 with 19 colour screen. The ViewStation Xcelerator FX is a full multimedia terminal with personal computer access and is rated at 150,000 XStones, with support for live video at 30 frames per second; prices go from $1,400 to $3,200. The Xcelerator Dual offers support for two monitors and windows can be moved from one monitor to the other for convenient access to large amounts of information; prices go from $2,300 to $5,400. And the Xcelerator Ultra offers the 250,000 XStone-plus performance and costs $1,800 to $3,600. The LX uses a 16MHz 80960CA, the FX a 25MHz, and the Ultra has an 80960CF at 33MHz, with hardware assist. All out now.
