Perhaps showing off its true colours now that it is part of the Acer Group, Altos Computer Systems chose Comdex rather than Unix Expo for the launch of its new System 4500 EISA bus-based product line, which again follows the personal computer trend by offering what it claims is the first modular CPU designed for Unix. The CPU subsystem, which uses a 20MHz 80486SX processor with support for an 80486SX maths chip of the same clock speed, has been implemented onto an easily plugged-in board. CPU upgrade boards for the machine, to include 33MHz and 50MHz versions of the 80486, will be available during the first quarter of next year, said the company. The 4500, which has six EISA slots, comes in three models: the 45411, 45820 and 45844 the difference being the amount of memory (4Mb or 8Mb, expandable to 64Mb) and hard disk size (from 110Mb to 440Mb). All include a 3.5 1.44Mb floppy, 5.25 cartridge, 10 serial ports, a parallel port, 14 colour monitor and super VGA controller. Support for 256Mb main memory will come with 16M-bit DRAMs, and disk storage can reach up to 11Gb using expansion cabinets. For networking, the box supports four Ethernet channels and five SCSI-2 channels. The machine is available im mediately, and prices will be in the range of $9,400 for the entry system depending on individual resellers.
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