The process is painfully laborious, but with every announcement, IBM Corp is getting closer to acquiring the competitive edge that is the difference between survival and oblivion in the Unix business, and yesterday the company filled in a few gaps in its RS/6000 line, the most challenging development being a wind up of the clock on the single-chip Rios processor to create a 45MHz Model 230, which starts at just $4,800. The 230 is designed to be an entry desktop workstation or server and has 8Kb of mixed instruction and data cache, and an additional 128Kb of level 2 cache. It has integrated SCSI and Ethernet controllers, takes up to 64Mb memory and up to 1Gb of internal disk and can take up to seven SCSI devices. The new Powerstation 23T is a workstation model with a Gt1x graphics adaptor with appropriate cable, 400Mb disk, keyboard, mouse and a new Powerdisplay 16S standard at $8,500; without the display it’s a 23W at $6,700. The 23S has 1Gb disk and eight-port RS-232 adaptor at $8,900. The Model 23E is an upgrade from the 220 series. The Gt1x 8-bit two-dimensional graphics adaptor offers two to three times the performance of the Gt1; most products ship May 28, but the 23T follows June 4, and the 23E upgrade and GT1x on the 220 are July 16. The new Powerdisplay 16 is a 1,280 by 1,024 pixel flicker-free display with auxiliary power, video signal redrive and Premium OCLI screen coating at $2,675. There is also a Powerdisplay 19 version at $3,950. There are also new 50MHz Powerstation 36T and 62MHz 37T systems, packaged desktop three-dimensional graphics workstations for applications such as CADAM and Catia. They come with Powerdisplay 16, Gt4e colour graphics adapter, keyboard, mouse, 32Mb memory and 400Mb disk; prices go from $12,950 to $25,070. The new line-up is completed by the 550L entry-level deskside server with 41.6MHz processor, 32Mb, 2Gb disk and SCSI and Ethernet at $25,500, and the base configuration for the 580 is enhanced to include the SCSI-2 High-Performance Internal input-output controller as a standard feature. The new Powerdisplay 16 and 19 are now also available on the deskside models.
