Texas Instruments Inc has turned to AST Research Inc, Irvine, California, instead of its previous OEM supplier Acer Corp, Taiwan, for the first member of a new line of Intel-based workstations – the TI 386/33, which it says will provide an economical complement to its Motorola-based T1000 multi-user systems. Using the 33MHz version of Intel’s 80386 processor, the new machine will be used either as stand-alone systems or as network stations attached to T1000 installations. For $7,000, the system includes 2Mb RAM (expandable to 36Mb), one parallel and two serial ports, 32Kb cache, seven expansion slots and a 1.2Mb floppy disk. An IDE hard disk controller and support for a floppy disk controller are also included. It is available now in the US, and is expected to be followed by an 80386SX-based machine from AST early next year. Texas continues to get 16MHz 80386 machines and an 80286-based workstation from Acer.
