Just over a year after Whitechapel Workstations emerged from its financial crisis with new venture capital funding and new management, the results of a refocussed commercial and technical strategy are about to emerge onto the market. Next month, the London E company is expected to announce the first product in a new range – a 10 MIPS desktop workstation based on the MIPS Computer RISC chip set but using an architecture designed in-house – which serves to keep future processor options open. It will run Sun’s NeWS windowing environment, and the forthcoming Version 11 of X-Window as well as its own Oriel interface, and will support Cheapernet as standard and Ethernet as required. Entry level price should be around UKP20,000. Whitechapel is responding to the recent workstation price war by moving to the middle ground where pressure is less intense – and by seeking big OEM deals, especially in France, where Thomson CSF builds its machines under licence, and in the US.
