A specially formed subsidiary of Maidenhead engineering distributor Hunter Electronic Components Ltd yesterday launched what it claims is the smallest footprint 80386-based Personal Computer in the UK. The single board machine, sold under licence from Reuters Holdings Plc’s Hauppage, New York subsidiary IDR Inc, measures 14 by 16 by 5 and costs UKP3,950, excluding a monitor, for one-offs and UKP3,700 in volumes of 25 or above. In most cases, it will be supplied with a UKP700 NEC multisync monitor. The 40-component board, which includes a 16MHz Intel processor with zero wait states, Chips and Technology Inc’s 32- bit CS8230 BIOS chip set and 82C206 peripheral controller, 2Mb of memory, EGA controller, two serial and one parallel port, and real time clock is also available on its own for UKP1,700. The IDR 386 Workstation has a 20Mb hard disk and one 1.2Mb, 5.25 floppy as standard and will be targetted at chip designers. Hunter Systems Ltd’s managing director Mike Ward is hoping for 150 to 200 sales in the first year. The product represents IDR’s first attempt at selling to third parties. Previously, IDR has only supplied other Reuters’ companies. The IDR 386 Workstation is $4,495 in the US.
