Norsk Data A/S yesterday announced eight new 32-bit minis in its new ND-5000 series, and committed itself to launching a Posix-conformant Unix by the middle of next year. When it was launched in January (CI No 607), the ND-5000 series was described as a compact range but the ND-5700, 5800 and 5900 introduced then are now considered tall cabinet models and the compact label has instead been given to five new machines. The five machines in the new compact 27 by 31.5 by 21.3, 30 to 40 lbs line are the 0.5 Whetstone MIPS ND-5200 Compact at UKP36,000, the 1 MIPS ND-5400 Compact at UKP55,000, the 2 MIPS ND-5500 Compact at UKP90,000, the 3.5 MIPS ND-5700 Compact at UKP130,000 and the ND-5800 Compact at UKP230,000. The three other machines take the 66.5 by 37.4 by 23.6, 115 lbs tall cabinet line – top-end 26 MIPS – down below the 3.5 MIPS 5700 introduced in January. They are the 0.5 MIPS ND-5200 at UKP50,000, the 1 MIPS ND-5400 at UKP75,000 and the 2 MIPS ND-5500 at UKP110,000. All eight machines have a 1.2Mb floppy and are available in A and B models. The A models have one 125Mb 5.25 hard disk built-in as standard with the possibility of three further 125Mb disks being added internally while the similarly-priced B models include only a controller and no disks and can be freely configured. All ND-5000 models, new and old, feature a custom CMOS gate array chip made by LSI Logic Europe that enables the 32-bit CPU to be mounted on a single board. Motorola 68020s are used as terminal, disk, tape and communications processors. All models in both the tall and compact lines are upgradeable to the next model up for almost exactly the difference in price. They come with Unix, X25 and Open Systems Interconnection support. Norsk Data says the lines will account for 85% of its UK revenue in the next 12 months and is forecasting unit sales of 250. Norsk is promising a version of Unix conforming to the Posix standard by next summer but it is not certain that it will be a native implementation: its current Unix is hosted under the proprietary Sintran III.
