MAI Basic Four Inc, Tustin, California has come out with a new Advanced Series of high-end machines that run its proprietary Boss/VS Basic operating system and support up to 140 users, twice as many as the biggest of the previous MPx Series. There are an initial two models in the new line – the AS-40 and the AS-60, and MPx 8000, 9000 and 9500 models can be field-upgraded via a processor swap-out to install the new high density CMOS processor and 1M-bit memory chips. They come in single, dual and triple processor configurations, with 4Mb and up to four disks in any mix of 300Mb and 621Mb drives. Typical prices for configured systems are $72,000 for a single processor AS-41 and $252,000 for a three processor AS-63. US ships are due to start this month.
