The Goldstar Electronics subsidiary of the giant $23,000m South Korean Lucky Goldstar conglomerate, which licensed the SunOS Unix operating system from Sun Microsystems last year, expects to have its Sparc-based machine ready by the beginning of the second quarter of next year. Unlike the handful of other Sun compatibles that have come to light in recent week with their value-adds, Goldstar makes no bones about its pure and simple clone of a Sparcstation 1. Using LSI Logic’s chip set in 20MHz and 25MHz versions, the company is having the motherboard design carried out by a team of 10 engineers at its subsidiary in San Jose, Goldstar Technology Inc, buttressed by personnel loaned from back home in Korea. Pricing, according to engineering vice-president Michael Kim, is very dependent on what the chip sets and other components, such as monitors, cost at the time the unnamed workstations are introduced. The company would like to come in under $5,000, but Kim thinks they’ll be lucky to bring it in under $6,000. Initial plans are to manufacture in Silicon Valley – Korean manufacture would require volumes – but sites under consideration in England, Scotland and Wales may make the workstations as well as personal computers (CI No 1,500). Goldstar is looking to sell 50,000 units a year, though not initially. To get those kinds of numbers, Kim reckons Goldstar is going to have to get into the complementary business of servers. To help it to market, Goldstar is looking for a partner, and is currently talking to an engineering company experienced in Unix with distribution channels in place that it is currently expanding. The unidentified concern has its foot in the Motorola camp with an add-in board for the 88000. A deal could be in place in a month, Kim said.
