The BOS Software Ltd Business Operating System has moved upmarket following the effort by Barnet-based Saffronrose Ltd, which has implemented BOS to the Excalibur range from LIP (Equipment and Service) Ltd of Shipley, Yorkshire. Excalibur features a 32-bit Motorola 68020 chip running at 16.67MHz and LIP reckons it runs at 4 MIPS. It has 512Kb of (fast) static RAM expandable up to 8Mb and can support up to four disk drives with one floppy as standard. The supermicro, which has been available running Pick for some time, is said to provide a smooth growth path up into the minicomputer world. A 50Mb disk system with tape security back-up supporting 10 screens comes in at under UKP10,000, while the 380Mb version supporting 40 screens starts below UKP30,000. LIP began using the BOS/Excalibur combination in August to find a performance improvement in the order of 500%: it claims it has reduced daily security tape backups from nearly an hour to less than 15 minutes. Speaking at the launch was Professor Martin Healey from Cardiff University who warned against the government recommending Yankee rubbish like Unix and applauded UKP500,000-a-year Saffronrose for its commitment to BOS. Saffronrose believes BOS to be the best multi-user operating system, especially for first time users, because of its quick portability – it took an hour to port to Excalibur – and networking capabilities. A basic desk-top system with Motorola 68020 processor, 512Kb of RAM, two serial ports and one parallel port is priced at UKP3,790. Hardware maintenance costs 12% to 15% of the price depending on the location of the user.
