Apricot Computers Ltd is working with parent Mitsubishi Electric Corp in Japan on a highly resilient super server, but until it is revealed next year, we must be content with the fault tolerant FT//e and FT//s Superserver and a low-end 80486 range aimed at the volume market. The servers both use Intel Corp’s DX2-66 or Pentium processors, with between 16Mb and 192Mb memory, or 256Mb on the Pentium, and a hard disk ranging from 240Mb to 2Gb. On the FT//e, there is also an 80486DX-33 option, and a maximum five drives per system, while the Superserver takes a maximum 10 drives. A Micro Channel chip set in the FT servers is the result of a joint development with Minneapolis, Minnesota firm Micral Inc, which Apricot joined up with 18 months ago, after a similar relationship with Chips & Technologies Inc, and the memory controller has a 64-bit data path. Prices for the Superserver start at UKP6,000 and at UKP4,000 for the FT//e. All but the Pentium models are out now; availability of the Pentium ones depends on Intel’s production output. There is also an NT version for UKP2,495, a 80486DX2 with 240Mb Ram, 16Mb disk. Apricot has a 50% share of the Japanese server market, but only 5% in the UK. Dr Peter Horne, managing director, said users increasingly want specialised servers, such as with a high level of fault tolerance and integral Uninterruptible Power Supply. He noted that the only server left working in the National Westminster Bank Plc after the IRA bomb in April was an Apricot, no doubt bolstered by the 60Kg of sheet steel around its batteries. The new Xen machines, Intel 80486SX-25MHz or 80486DX-33MHz models priced between UKP800 and UKP900, mark Apricot’s return to the commodity marketplace and a new route to market, called the Apricot Connection. The firm has signed up four of its key resellers to each sell at least 5,000 personal computers apiece by the end of the year via mail order, and will take the same route in Germany and Japan. Users dial a central telephone line to order by cash or credit card for next day delivery. It hopes to pick up 10,000 new customers this way, from a mix of home and corporate users, and now it has surface mount technology at its plant in Glenrothes, Scotland, it can churn out personal computers as cheaply as the Far East, or so it claims.
