Apricot Computers Plc has abandoned the special Sealed Box model in its new Qi family of 80386 Micro Channel machines (CI No 1,008), and will instead offer comparable low prices on all models in the Qi line to end users who order 10 or more Qisthrough its dealers. The discount is said to be about 36%, and it is hard to see where dealers will find their margin on sales to these so-called nominated accounts. Apricot is also replacing the 80286-based Xen-i with a Xen-S with Ethernet on the motherboard, and VGA. Confronted by disappointing sales and the common knowledge that it does little that hasn’t already been offered or achieved under Unix, IBM has clearly decided to devote time and energy to hyping its OS/2 operating system. Two of the company’s US-based executives were recently summoned to IBM’s South Bank offices where, undeterred by a fire drill, they energetically outlined the multiple benefits of the product to a group of assembled sceptics. To date, the range comprises the Standard Edition 1.0, released in the December of last year, the Extended Edition 1.0, available in the US since the end of July, the Standard Edition 1.1 – planned US availability by the end of this month – and the Extended Edition 1.1, due for release at the end of November. Naturally, most comparisons were restricted to a superior-than-PC-DOS type format, particularly the breaking of the so-called 640Kb memory barrier, achieved by integrating a memory management component to the Standard Edition 1.0 or base version of the operating system. Very large applications Users now have, so the corporate argument goes, up to 16Mb of memory support, enabling them to develop and run spreadsheets and other very large applications, together with significant multi-tasking capabilities. For the recently arrived Extended Edition 1.0, IBM has effectively stuck the Communications Manager and Database Manager subsystems to the base operating system. The rationale behind this appears to be internally conducted and IDC research, which suggests that by 1992, some 95% of all business personal computers worldwide will be communicating, and that 75% of the same group will have some form of database attached. Currently enabling communication with a number of different kinds of processors, the company claims that within Extended Edition 1.1, the Communications Manager will provide users with a distributed applications base, the ability to conduct up to 25 concurrent communications sessions, and extensive mix and match connectivity. Broken down to specifics, this connectivity extends to Advanced Program-to-Program Communicatiions using Logical Unit 6.2 and Physical Unit 2.1 protocols; a 3270 and Server-Requester Program Interface
