IBM yesterday replaced the B30 and B40 AS/400s with the 9406 B35 and B45, offering improved price-performance, and there is a new ASCII Workstation Controller for the 9406 models so that ASCII devices can be used with the larger models. 9406 Model B70 support for 48 communications lines and 20 workstation controllers (previously announced as 15 workstation controllers) and the feature to attach the 3422 and 3430 tape drives will be available on October 27. The Model B35 is claimed to offer 22% better performance than the B30, 30% in System 36 emulation mode, and 8Mb base memory, for $27,820, about the same as the B30; the B45 is 14% better than a B40, 16% in 36 emulation, and costs $65,620 and they are available on October 27. The new AS/Entry versions of the 5363, the A10, A20, and A22 switch to 1M-bit memory chips and have 1Mb or 2Mb of main memory. The A10 has 419Mb of disk, the A20 has 63(Mb, and the A22 has 1.2Gb and base prices are UKP6,192, UKP7,690 and UKP10,964, and are available immediately. IBM made a statement of direction in the UK promising that it would continue the evolution of AS/Entry with improved hardware and software and ease of migration to AS/400 for System/36 users.
