Oxford-based Research Machines Ltd is hoping to increase its current 22% of the Computer Aided Design personal computer market, and to extend its market base from the traditional education to the commercial arena with a newly-announced range of machines based on the Intel 80486 chip. The VX486 range, which Research Machines claims offers double the performance of the best 80386 machines at a comparable price, uses a 25MHz processor offering 10.4 MIPS; the standard 2Mb of RAM can be expanded up to 16Mb and an ESDI disk sub-system supports up to 600Mb of on-board hard disk. A standard AT bus is used – only this time next year will the 32-bit EISA bus be available – but Research Machines says this will not create bottlenecks as traffic speed has been increased by 50% to 12.5 MHz, which is enough to support the three-dimensional graphics planned for the future. The VX486 range is supplied with either MS-DOS or OS/2 operating systems, and can be used with Unix. Part of Research Machines’ strategy to become a UKP100m company, the new range will be available generally from the start of next year, depending on chip supplies from Intel – the first batch has, despite delays, been confirmed. Meanwhile, the first 50 machines will be available to existing dealers and customers from October with prices starting at UKP7,000 for the 60Mb machine up to UKP10,000 for the 300Mb version. Founded in 1973, Research Machines has dealt mainly in fast machines for education and science, but since then has gained a presence in the City among clients like Reuters and Citicorp, and in governmental sectors like the Department of Education and Science, with the RM Nimbus AX-286 and VX-386 systems. The VX486 – which Research Machines stresses is a genuine 80486 product, unlike the hastily put together IBM upgrade board – will be competing to a certain extent with HM Systems 486 Minstrel workstation, the 25MHz version of which at UKP8,500 is slightly more expensive than the basic VX-486 model. But it is Compaq’s 55% of the UK micro-based Computer Aided Design market that Research Machines is eyeing most intently, with the intention of developing this area to make up around 40% of its total business.
