Co-processor specialist Opus Systems Inc is itself moving into the systems business following its development and marketing agreement with personal computer manufacturer Everex Systems Inc of Fremont, California. The two companies have developed a new line of high performance workstations using Motorola’s new 17 MIPS, 35,000 Dhrystone 88000 RISC processor with Hercules graphics, which is used as a back-end to the Intel 80286 or 80386 processors in the Everex Step series of high end personals. The Opus version, launched just ahead of UniForum, is the Personal Mainframe Series 8000, which features up to 20Mb on-board memory, high resolution graphics terminal and mouse, Ethernet controller, floppy and 80Mb hard drives, Unix System V, X-Window, and the ability to run Unix and MS-DOS concurrently. Prices start at $10,000 with 4Mb and 80Mb disk. The Everex version, said to be substantially the same, will be launched during the show. Options include tape cartridge back-up, high capacity ESDI hard disk, and multiport adaptors, along with Network File System, and a Berkeley programming environment with BSD utilities, system calls and library calls. Opus Systems marketing manager Tom Lacey said the association with Everex had speeded up the Cupertino, California-based company’s entrance into the systems market, and allowed Everex to upgrade its micros to take advantage of the lucrative workstation market. Opus has also launched a separate co-processor board for OEM customers, the Series 400 Personal Mainframe board, with prices (including Unix) ranging from $5,000 for the 88000 board with 4Mb memory rising to $12,000 with 20Mb, and still produces co-process ors using National Semiconductor 32000 and Intergraph Clipper chips. Availability is the second quarter.
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