US press reports confirm that IBM is readying a low-end diskless version of its RS/6000 RISC workstation to sell at around $6,000 and compete with Sun Microsystems Inc’s SLC offering. The new model is expected in the first quarter of next year, Computer Reseller News reckons, and says it will likely come with 8Mb memory, and offer around 12 MIPS performance, with built-in Ethernet and Token-Ring capabilities. In addition the paper says new X-terminals at $1,500 are in the works. Rationale for the development is the fact that the smallest box in the IBM AIX series – the $13,000 Model 320 – currently accounts for 60% of total RS/6000 sales. At AIX World in Washington a couple of weeks ago IBM announced that the PowerServer 540 and 930 models in the series are now shipping, adding that 800 applications are currently available for the range. A further 700 applcations will follow by the end of the year, it said, with a total of over 7,000 applications now planned – but, of course, that was the way IBM and Microsoft Corp talked in the early days of OS/2.
