National Advanced Systems Corp and Comparex Information Systems both responded yesterday to IBM’s recent revamp of the 4381 and announcement of the 3090-120E (CI No 685) by adding two new models to the ranges they introduced in March (CI No 633). The new machines are an entry level uniprocessor of around 5 MIPS – the AS/VL 40 in NASpeak and the 8/81 in Comparex’s version of things – and a dyadic processor – the AS/XL 80 or 8/89 – delivering roughly four times that power. Both models feature 1Mb memory chips providing up to 256Mb of storage, and eight to 32 chan-nels configured at 3 or 6Mbyte-per-second. Only the top-end model has dynamic working storage. Neither the National Semiconductor-owned NAS, nor the BASF-Siemens Comparex joint venture gave prices though NAS policy is to charge 80% of the price of an IBM machine of comparable performance. The new machines are scheduled for ships in the fourth quarter.
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