While much of the company is distracted by the imminent change of ownership – and nationality, business life must go on, and the Santa Ana, California end of McDonnell Douglas Information Systems has been expanding at the US launch on its new highly integrated implementation of its basic Series 6000 Pick processor (CI No 1,203). The company says that the processor and memory architecture is based on CMOS Application Specific Integrated Circuits technology designed by McDonnell Douglas and implemented by LSI Logic Corp: each of the ASIC chips integrates 100,000 logic gates in 1.5 micron technology, and a single ASIC-based board replaces up to four CPU and memory boards in the existing bit-slice models, as well as increasing Series 6000 CPU performance by 70% and significantly enhancing system reliability, expandability and maintainability. Improved reliability is claimed not only from the reduction in component count but also from the simulation testing involved in the ASIC chip development process. Machines running the Pick operating system make rapacious use of tape drives, and in introducing the new US Series 6000 models, the company also announced new tape subsystems as well as upgrade kits that enable most currently installed Series 6000 systems to be upgraded with the new processor – but existing Series 6000 systems don’t die: prices are cut and they are repositioned as low-end models. The new 6404 starts at $27,900 with 2Mb memory, 75Mb ESDI disk, 120Mb cartridge tape and eight ports. The new 6604 adds 2Mb cache, doubles disk capacity to 150Mb, has a double density half inch tape drive and 16 ports for $51,500. The reconfigured 6000 models are the 6402, with 1Mb memory, and otherwise the same configuration as the 6404 at $20,900; the 6602 with 2Mb memory, 2Mb cache and the same configuration as the 6604 costs $44,500. The new half inch dual density drive costs $10,500, the new quarter inch cartridge drive is $3,950 for existing 6000 users. The processor and memory upgrade kits are $17,250 or less. The models with the new CPU will be available in October, the reconfigured 6402 and 6602 using the old CPU are available now.
