US reports suggest that Hewlett-Packard Co’s new high-end three and four processor versions of the machines announced right at the start of this year, will arrive in March. The Unix-based HP 9000 Models 870S/300 and 870S/400, and HP 3000 Series 980/300 and 980/400, which run the proprietary MPE/V operating system will likely top 200 MIPS performance, according to the same reports. Although these will be built around Hewlett’s existing CMOS Precision Architecture RISC technology, the firm is unlikely to move beyond four processors as it is expected to move to some form of Gallium Arsenide-based multi-processing unit around 1993. Hewlett shelved plans for an ECL processor design some time ago. Meantime Hewlett-Packard’s next generation of desktop workstations built around its Precision Architecture RISC chip are expected to be the flagship of its OSF/1 operating system effort, but last week it emerged that its HP-UX or Apollo Domain Unix variants would likely be offered on the boxes initially. Now Electronic News hears that Hewlett has pushed the announcement of the new workstations back to the first quarter of next year from the end of this year, citing extended development time. Entry-level performance is reckoned to be around 50 MIPS, with a base price of $10,000. First out will be uniprocessor models, though the Precision Architecture chip they will use includes multi-processing hooks, and multi-processing versions will follow.
