Promising to ship 100,000 of the things in the first 12 months of marketing, Power Computing Corp, Milpitas, California formally launched its first Macintosh clones on Monday, claiming a 20% price advantage over Apple Computer Inc for the machines, which it will initially market mail-order. Prices range from $2,000 to $2,900 for the desktops, depending on configuration, and excluding the monitor; towers are not yet priced. Limited shipments will begin May 1, with volume shipments starting in July. Imaginatively called the Power 80, Power 100 and Power 110, the three models use PowerPC 601 RISC microprocessors clocked at those speeds, and are pitched against Apple’s Power Mac 7100 and 8100; they come in desktop and tower configurations. Differentiators include quad-speed CD-ROM drive on most models, higher performance and built-in video with 2Mb video RAM, five bundled applications and a free extended keyboard. All have eight SIMM expansion slots, built-in Ethernet support, 256Kb level-2 ca che, dual-channel asynchronous SCSI interface and three NuBus slots. The input-output components are on a separate board in a custom slot, so that upgrading does not require motherboard replacement. Bundled software includes ClarisWorks 3.0, Intuit Inc’s Quicken 5.0; Now Utilities, Now Contact and Now Up-to-Date, and Bitstream fonts. Power Computing says it plans to start selling through retailers and some mail-order catalogues around September, and by year-end may be in major electronics superstores.
