That risky experiment to see if it’s possible to burden a computer company already already destabilised by the challenge posed by the gallop to open systems with a mountain of debt and still turn a capital gain in four or five years, Prime Computer Inc has turned its EXL 80386-based Unix machines into servers with the launch of its Prime EXL Portable NetWare implementation of Novell Inc’s NetWare 386. The Natick, Massachusetts company has also developed a gateway to interconnects the local net with its minicomputers, and an electronic mail gateway. The new products run under Prime’s implementation of Unix and ship on July 30. Prime claims that this is the first implementation of Portable NetWare to run on the 80386 and the only implementation complemented with menu-driven communication gateways. Prime claims it is also the only Portable NetWare developer to have incorporated NetWare Value-Added Processes for system back-up and network monitoring. A system with a 25MHz 80386, a floating point processor, 8Mb of zero-wait-state memory; 323Mb disk; 150Mb tape cartridge; Ethernet; system console with keyboard; ARCserve, Monitrix and terminal emulation software; Unix System V.3 and Portable NetWare at $28,745. Prime EXL Portable NetWare licences begin at $5,000. Separately, Prime has separated its computer systems business unit from its company-wide manufacturing operation, but both will report to Delbert Lippert, who joins Prime this week as executive vice-president from from NovAtel Communications Corp of Canada, where he was the chief executive.