Sony’s NEWS workstation range now has a new head and tail. The top-end NWS-3880 RISC machine, which was unveiled in Japan back in October, has a claimed 20 MIPS and 3.5 MFLOPS performance, and will cost around UKP22,000 in the UK when it becomes available from February. It features a dual-processor configuration, with a 20MHz MIPS R3000 RISC chip acting as CPU and a Motorola 68030 controlling input-output functions. Software includes BSD 4.3 Unix, the X Window System, TCP/IP and Network File System. The machine comes with 640Mb disk, 150Mb tape and two SCSI controllers. The entry-level NWS-1520, built around a 25MHz 68030, with 4Mb memory and 3.9 MIPS performance costs UKP4,500, with the same range of software as the 3800. All the RISC and complex instruction systems in Sony’s NEWS range are source-code compatible. AT&T’s Unix System V.4 is to be offered across the range, and will be standard from the middle of next year. In other new year resolutions, Sony promises a new Digital Audio Tape system, video and workstation interfaces, and parallel processing capabilities. In the UK, Sony Microsystems has appointed former Apollo product marketing manager Steve Boniwell to head up its new operation based in Staines, Middlesex – a porting and support centre will be established in the future. Boniwell expects to sign up some five or more new UK distributors over the course of next year.
