As expected (CI No 1,963), Data General Corp yesterday rolled out eight-way, high-end versions of its Motorola Inc 88000 RISC-based symmetric multi-processing AViiON servers, plus two models at the low end. The Westborough, Massachusetts-based company that says these will be the last to incorporate Motorola’s current 88100 RISC – it expects to move up to Motorola’s next-generation 88110 processor by the end of the year (CI No 1,948). With eight 88100s configured in pairs across four boards, a two-level cache system and dual memory bus architecture, the rack-mouted AV6280 unit is rated by the company at 235 MIPS and comes with 128Mb memory. It supplants the existing quad-processor server at the top of the AViiON range. The AV8000-8 is a packaged version of the AV6280, incorporating the processor board plus a RAID disk subsystem. Both configurations are scheduled for release in the fourth quarter, and prices start at $200,000 – ?190,000. Also announced was a low-end, uniprocessor model, the AV4605 – and a dual-processor system – the AV4625 – which replace the current AV4600 series servers. With 32Mb memory, 520Mb disk and 525Mb tape, the AV4605 is priced at from $20,000 – ?19,000. All the new servers run DG/UX V.4/SMP, the firm’s symmetric multiprocessing Unix System V.4 MP implementation. Data General’s first use of the 88110 will be in a workstation, followed by 200 to 400 MIPS-rated mid-range AViiON systems in spring 1993 and an 800 MIPS-rated rack-mount machine by the end of next year. The top-end will run to eight and 16 CPU configurations – which is as high as Data General says it wants to go.
