Although the lid has only just been lifted on the new Altos Intel 80386-based Series 2000, the UK division is claiming 200 orders for the machine and says that it has already filled 80 of those. By the end of June, the end of Altos’ financial year, the company expects to have shipped between 600 and 800 of the new 32-bit systems worldwide. The UK resellers – Logitek, MBS, and in Ireland, Business Automation, have placed orders worth around UKP10m. The company, with UK headqurters in Windsor, Buckinghamshire says that it intends the new machines for: medium sized companies that would usually buy minicomputers; vertical markets, local and central government. Altos claims that the competition such as the IBM 6150 RT, the MicroVAX II, NCR’s 32/600, the AT&T 3B2/400, and Convergent Technologies S/320 are under half as powerful as its new box and bases this on benchmarks commissioned from Neal Nelson of Chicago. The company then adds that this all at prices you can afford. In the UK a 20-user system based on the entry configuration costs UKP1,900 per user; the 40-user system is just over UKP1,700 per user; and the 64-user system is UKP1,600 per user. Altos say that it will continue with both its Intel and Motorola product lines and intends to release a 68030-based machine as soon as the processor becomes available: the two lines are of equal importance to the company. Altos claims never to have made a loss in any quarter since it was founded in 1977, and boasts a cash reserve of $50m and net assets of $135m, making up for low profitability.
