Madrid-based Diode Espana SA has begun manufacture of its Visa computers at its 126,000 square foot factory in the Cerdanyola Technology Park, just outside Barcelona. The Visa brand name is owned by Amsterdam-based Getronics NV, of which Diode is a subsidiary. The production line was set up under the supervision of Getronics engineers, responsible for the quality processes established in Holland and Norway. The range of products to be sold in the Spanish market, will be based on iAPX-86 architecture and will initially include 80486DX4 and 75MHz and 90MHz Pentium microprocessors. All models will have Flash BIOS, two IDE PCI controllers, UART 16550 serial and ECP and EPP parallel ports, three fans on the Pentiums, PCI video, four PCI and three AT slots. The initial offerings comprise a mini-tower system and a range of notebooks. The mini-tower is designed to meet high processing power requirements and will support workstation, multi-user, mid-range server and graphic station configurations. The notebook range comprises models TS30NMI and TS30MLC, both with Cyrix Corp’s Cx486DX-66 processors, 4Mb DRAM, going to 20Mb, 128Kb flash ROM and IDE hard disks offering 120Mb to 450Mb. Price levels have not yet been set.
