Texas Instruments Data Systems is keenly aware of a gap between its top-end multi-68020 System 1500 Unix machine and the entry-level System 1100 – which is based on the 80286 and not the 68020 as we incorrectly suggested last October. The new machine has a code-name, the Road Runner – but its spec is sufficiently fluid that Texas has not yet decided whether to use the 80386 or the 68020 in it. It wants the machine because resellers are demanding it, saying that customers are concentrated in the mid-to-low end of the market, below the mighty 1500, which supports up to 128 users. The 1100 supports 16 users and the new machine is to take from 15 to 32 and to be brought in at between $21,000 and $40,000, with availability in the third quarter.The new Unix machines succeed the Texas 990 minis, with Cobol conversion tools from Micro Focus Plc.
TEXAS SETS THIRD UNIX BOX IN SIX MONTHS – WHICH CHIP?
