Eyeing the continuing proliferation of the IBM AT-bus and seeking to tempt OEM system integrators onto a path leading to its own Multibus II, Intel yesterday wheeled out a range of low-end real time 80386, AT-bus systems. The System 120 series, which comes configured as development systems or target platforms, runs either MS-DOS or Intel’s iRMX II 80286-mode real-time operating system, the latter providing compatibility with existing iRMX Multibus I and Multibus II systems. The idea is that customers buying into the low-end products may later migrate to Multibus as their applications grow; they can also use the System 120 too develop applications for Multibus systems. The System 120 is based on Intel’s existing System 301 AT-bus machine and comes as a target system with 2Mb RAM, 40Mb disk and 360Kb floppy for a UKP4,320 list price, or in a diskless configuration. The UKP6,690 development system comes with a 40Mb or an 80Mb disk drive, 90 days’ free maintenance, and basic development tools.
