Opus Systems Inc, Cupertino, California, will next Monday reveal a whole raft of OEM products based on Sun Microsystems’ Sparc RISC technology, including a promised Sparc workstation building kit, (CI No 1,413), its own Sparc-based systems and a personal computer add-in board. The Opus kit is a combined hardware and software package for building workstations compatible with Sun Microsystems’ Sparcstation. Hardware includes a motherboard with a 25MHz, 18 MIPS or 40MHz, 29 MIPS version of LSI Logic’s SparKIT processor chip set, a bare printed circuit board, film, schematics, assembly plans, FAB drawings, gerber tape and a bill of materials. It supports up to either 32Mb or 64Mb RAM, depending on processor, Sbus expansion slots, Ethernet, SCSI and two serial ports. The binary software tape comes with SunOS 4.1, SunView 1.8, C compiler, Network File System, TCP/IP and all SunOS utilities. Out now, the Opuskit starts at $25,000. It is also available as the Opusengine – just the motherboard and software – at $8,000. Existing personal computers can be transformed into Sparc systems with the Personal Mainframe 500 kit – a Sparc board with 8Mb RAM, SunOS, SunView, Network File System, TCP/IP, Ethernet, SCSI, and a 19 monochrome screen. Occupying two slots in AT-based personal computers, the 500PM can run both SunOS and MS-DOS – the latter on the host Intel processor as a window under SunView – and starts at $6,000. Opus is also offering its own complete Sparcstation-compatible workstations and servers as the Personal Mainframe 5000 series. Initial offering is the 5120PM workstation which has the same basic system and software specifications as the Opuskit, plus three Sbus expansion slots, 3.5 floppy drive, 19 colour or monochrome display, keyboard and optional internal hard disk it costs $9,000. Inspired by the success of the personal computer – and encouraged by Sun – Sparc kit-builders like Opus and LSI Logic are trying to stimulate the growth of a similar mass market of compatible, low-cost Sparc boxes by providing standard hardware and software building blocks. Indeed Opus claims several major personal computer firms have already signed for its kits and are expected to announce Sparc workstations shortly.
