Stratus Computer Inc., Marlboro, Massachusetts has announced its latest fault-tolerant range of supermicrocomputers for banking, financial and other critical transaction processing applications, and is all but halting production of its previous offering, the XA600. The new range, the XA2000, uses Motorola’s 16MHz 68020 processor coupled with the 68881 maths co-processor, the basic processor board consisting of two 68020s and two 68881s where previous models used a pair of 68000s or 68010s. The XA2000 line features five models that run under the new 6.0 release of Stratus’ VOS Virtual Operating System, also supported on earlier models. The new machines include a new memory subsystem, available in 8Mb, 16Mb and 32Mb packs up to 64Mb maximum per module and four of the five models are upgradeable – Models 110, 120, 130 and 140 can be upgraded by adding a CPU board to the 40-slot chassis, but the Model 100 has room only for a single board with a pair of 68020-68881 combinations. The Model 110 has one pair of logical processor boards, the Model 120 two pairs, with up to four pairs on the Model 140. Models can be configured using Stratus’ StrataLINK bus, which will also enable XA600 to XA2000 upgrade. IBM has simultaneously been announced as an OEM customer for the XA2000 and Stratus in the UK says is ‘working closely’ with DEC software houses with a view to developing a DEC-to-Stratus migration path. Prices for the XA2000 range, with VOS, four disk drives and a 9-track tape start at UKP224,500 for an entry-level Model 110, UKP267,500 for the Model 100, UKP293,000 for the 120, UKP371,000 for the 130 and UKP646,500 for the top of the range Model 140. Upgrade between models is $125,000.
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