Birmingham’s Apricot Computers Plc has made good its promise to be out early with an 80486-based machine with the launch yesterday of its VX FTserver range, codenamed Titan (CI No 1,176) – and claims to have boosted the performance of the 80486 with a specially designed Hypercache, 128-bit wide and 8K deep, which allows the new Intel microprocessor to operate in its burst mode. The aggressively priced servers come in two ranges: the VX 400 series of MS-DOS (or optional OS/2) network servers, aimed at MS Net, Lan Manager, Novell NetWare/386 and LAN Server operation; and the VX 800 Series for Unix. Memory configuration and serial input-output provision are the major differences between the two ranges, with the Unix models having 16Mb standard, against 4Mb on the other models, and featuring 32 or 64 channel serial support as standard. There are four models in each range, beginning with the Model 10, based on a 25MHz 80386 and with 117Mb hard disk, and followed by the 25MHz 80486 Models 30, 60 and 90, which are configured with 338Mb, 638Mb and 1,047Mb hard disks – SCSI or run-length limited – respectively. Using the Micro Channel Architecture bus, the systems support Ethernet (Token Ring optional) and VGA graphics on the motherboard, and also include fault tolerant features through the Advanced System Contoller subsystem, with uninterruptible power supply, system environment control, disk shadowing and system diagnostics. A back-up option using digital audio tape technology from Hewlett-Packard and Sony, for 1.2Gb storage on a single DAT cartridge will be available in the fourth quarter. Also available is Apricot’s Security System, with security management software and security card, as on the Qi workstations. The new systems will form the core of Apricot’s distributed computing policy along with the Qi PS/2 compatibles and AT-bus Xen workstations, but may impact low end sales of the Sequent VX 9000 multiprocessors. Prices go from UKP8,000 to UKP22,000 and a low-end 80486-based 400/30 rated at 15 MIPS and with 4Mb memory, SCSI drive system and 338Mb hard disk still breaking the UKP10,000 price barrier. The VX 800/30, offering three times the power of a similarly configured Altos Computer 2000/20-8, would cost just under UKP12,000, compared with UKP40,000 for the Altos, claims Apricot. Ships start in July for 80386 versions, September for the 80486s.
