Compaq Computer Corp announced both desktop machines and servers and is actually placing most of its valuable early Pentiums into the desktop products so that the new Deskpro 60/M and 66/M machines will debut first. This is the first time that Compaq has bought its Triflex Architecture (launched last October in the SystemPro/XL server) onto the desktop. Triflex uses a 64-bit processor bus and 128-bit memory bus together with the 32-bit EISA input-output bus and reckons that this will be key to getting full performance out of the new processor. So, in the same vein, fast base memory is built onto the motherboard; the 66/M uses 60nS access memory chips and a cache as standard, the 60MHz machine gets 70nS memory and the cache is optional. The result is, says Compaq, that the processor can use the bus’s 267Mbps burst mode 75% of the time. The faster machine is expandable up to 144Mb of RAM, and the slower copes with up to 136Mb. A moderately configured Deskpro 60/M costs around UKP4,200 with the 66/M costing UKP1,000 more. Alternatively, for around UKP2,000, existing Deskpro/M users will be able to upgrade to Pentium. That is a full Pentium machine, it should be noted not the forthcoming ‘Overdrive’ P24T chip that will provide many, but not all, Pentium capabilities. Compaq is eschewing the Overdrive approach for its desktop machines in favour of supplying a whole new processor board that includes the Triflex bus and new base memory. As for Pentium’s infamous heat output, Compaq reckons that the original Deskpro/M boxes were designed with Pentium in mind and that the airflow will cope. The other big performance improver that the company introduced yesterday was the QVision 1280 video controller, which it says is 60% faster than its existing QVision 1024 board. It has all sorts of graphics engines built in, including one for line drawing and a fast bit-blitter for quick block moves and 2Mb of video RAM. In fact, a graph briefly shown at the announcement implied that Windows benchmark performance could be improved more substantially by slotting in the UKP385 video adaptor than a Pentium board. On the thorny problem of availability, Walter Puschener, European PC business manager says that shipments will not start before end-June – and even then only in limited quantities and primarily the 60/M, with shipments of the 66MHz machine remaining very restricted. Even in the third quarter, he says things will be pretty tight and a number of accounts will have to wait before they get them on their desk tops. The situation for the server products is worse if anything. Compaq announced new members of both its Prosignia and its top of the range SystemPro/XL machines, but they will not even begin to ship until the third quarter. The Prosignia range is only going at 60MHz at the moment, while the SystemPro/XL 5/66 can take two of the things once they arrive. Both processors must be the same. As with the DeskPros, a full Pentium upgrade is available for existing SystemPro/XL users, but old Prosignias must put up with Overdrive. The ProSignia 5/60 starts at UKP3,920 and the SystemPro/XL 5/66 UKP14,862. And Compaq cut prices on existing servers by 2% to 7%.
