Apple Computer Inc yesterday announced its first Power Macs for schools – its first machines to use the new PowerPC 603 RISC, clocked at 75MHz. The new Power Mac LC 5200/75, available now to schools and educators in the US, starts at $1,700 with 8Mb, 500Mb disk, CD-ROM and 15 monitor; with video-input-output and television tuner it is $2,100. It will be offered to the consumer market later in the year. Apple also added lower-cost non-Power Macs with enhanced multimedia features, the LC580 and the LC630, at $1,900 and $2,000. The company also introduced the Workgroup Server 9150/120, based on a 120MHz PowerPC 601 chip, which is not yet generally available; the machine is claimed to be up to 30% faster than the 80MHz Power Mac 8100 on some database file-server applications. The 9150/120 costs $8,710, and the company also added 6150/66 and 8150/110 models. All the new servers are bundled with release 4.1 of AppleShare, the PowerPC version of the file-and-print software, which is claimed to run up to 90% faster than current versions of the software.
