London, NW-based HM Systems Plc has launched a high end workstation, forecasting that it will eventually constitute around 75% of the company’s turnover. The new 286 Minstrel Millenium workstation – manufactured at its London base and in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire – has a 20MHz 80286 processor, runs all MS-DOS, OS/2, Unix and TurboDOS-based software plus Novell and 3Com networking software, runs at 20MHz, 16MHz or 12MHz, and is fully IBM PC-AT compatible; 1Mb RAM is standard with expansions up to 5Mb. Additional features include a 3.5 Winchester disk option, with capacities from 42Mb to 120Mb, and 3.5 1.44Mb floppy disk drive. HM also says the Millenium’s disk cache controller can improve performance to make it suitable for disk intensive applications such as desktop publishing; the workstation is based on Chips & Technologies NEAT set, an implementation for Intel 80286 micros – which it claims means better consumption and reliability than most 386s, at a cost 10% to 15% below equivalents from Compaq, IBM, Apricot. Where do you get hold of a 20MHz 80286? Harris Corp announced one in CMOS in June (CI No 956). Founded in 1979, HM Systems launched the Z80 based Minstrel 1 two years later, and now has an international customer base of over 4,000 for the Minstrel 4, largely in the UK public sector. The company employs 16 at its London office and had a turnover of UKP2m last year, a figure it looks to the new Millenium to help to double this year; managing director Tony Harris, however, is, firmly opposed to a public share issue, maintaining investors’ short term attitudes would make such a move inappropriate.
