Altos Computer Systems – now part of the Acer Group – has boosted its best-selling System 1000 low-end Unix boxes with faster processors and upgraded memory options. The Intel-based Series 1000 was first launched four years ago, and since then Altos UK has sold 5,000 of them. The three latest iterations dubbed Classic – are the 386/33, 486SX/20 and 486DX/25, and are intended for workgroups of up to 40 users. UK prices start at UKP8,000 for a 386/33 with 525Mb tape, 4Mb RAM, eight ports and a 200Mb drive. According to Altos marketing director John Cummins, the company has not suffered from an overlap between Acer and Altos product lines. Acer has a personal computer product range from notebooks to servers, which it sells to resellers as system components. Altos is seen as the Unix specialist within the Acer Group and sells fully configured systems. Altos prices are benefitting from economies of scale, said Cummins. By the end of the year, he expects to be able to offer Santa Cruz Operation Inc Unix for the machines as an option, instead of Altos’ own Unix – Santa Cruz is working on the implementation. Meanwhile, Altos says it is planning a top-end multi-processor data server system, with four 50MHz 80486 processors, using technology developed by its parent company.
