Showing that it has got the message that to cut it in the RISC Unix market a company has to adhere to Chairman Mao’s doctrine or permanent revolution, Data General Corp has added four new members of its AViiON family, including the industry’s lowest-priced, RISC-based server and best price-performance workstation. The 17-MIPS AV 200 station is clearly intended to upstage Sun Microsystems’ Sparcstation 1 SLC: using a 16MHz 88100, it starts at $5,950, $350/MIPS, including 20 monitor and unlike the Sun box, can accept disks. Using the same chip, the $13,000 AV 3200 server comes with 8Mb memory, 332Mb disk, 150Mb quarter-inch cartridge tape drive. The AV 4100 and 4120 systems are faster members of the AV 4000 family: the 4100 uses the 20MHz 88100 for 20 Dhrystone MIPS; the AV 4120 doubles up on 88100s; the base system has 8Mb, 332Mb disk, 150Mb, two-slot VME chassis and integrated Ethernet controller: $21,545; the dual processor AV 4200 starts at $34,545. The 332Mb 5.25 disk costs $4,950, $14 per Mb, the best price the company has ever offered. The machines are on 30 days’ delivery; lease terms are offered in the US.
