IBM Corp has postponed yet again the introduction of both the so-called RS/5000, its much-anticipated low-cost low-end addition to the RS/6000 line, and also new high-end RS/6000 models until early next year. Gossip had been flying for a couple of weeks that the machines, which were most recently scheduled for next month, might be delayed again, and late last week workstation chief Bill Filip told the Wall Street Journal that the company was having trouble with the input-output chip for the new more highly integrated iteration of the processor. The problem had been in getting the timing in sync with the rest of the processor, and had now been fixed, he said, but the company would not be able to get more than a handful of test machines built this year. Volume manufacturing will not start until well into the first quarter. Filip is saying he is unconcerned by the delay, but it is a serious handicap for IBM not to have a bottom-end machine: the marker price for Sparcsystems is right down to $4,290, which means that IBM will either have to price the machine well below the figure it had planned or it will be uncompetitive – meantime, the company can’t fill current volume orders, although an obvious solution would be to reconfigure the existing bottom RS/6000 model and slash the price on it.
