The machines were always a bit of a kluge – two Motorola 68000s, one of them custom-microcoded, and an Intel 8087, assembled so as to be able to execute 370 instructions – and IBM has called it a day on its desk-top 370s, the Personal Computer XT/370 and AT/370. US observers seeing this as the end of the road for 370-type workstations may however be reading more into the move than is justified, since IBM has not one but several alternative 370 microprocessors in development. In the US, all but three models of the XT have been withdrawn, the surviving ones being the models 268, 278 and 286, and it is expected that these will only be available while stocks last. In the UK, the Personal Computer 3270 was withdrawn as long ago as last November, but is still available in the US, although the 3270 Workstation Program on the Personal System/2 is now the preferred solution.
