Tulip Computers NV of Holland is looking up-market from its traditional line of MS-DOS micros and will be launching its first Extended Industry Architecture system using Intel Corp’s 80486 processor at Hannover’s giant Cebit exhibition later this month. The new Tulip 486e uses a 25MHz chip, and will be sold as a desktop publishing, CAD/CAM and engineering technical workstation, and also as a file server for MS-DOS networks. Instead of second level cacheing, Tulip uses the capabilities of the 80486 for its Advanced Memory Concept, supporting the chip’s burst mode for data transfers from external memory to the internal cache at a transfer rate of up to 80 Mbps. The machine also features a hardware-based System Control Manager to control security. The floor-standing machines come with from 8Mb to 16Mb memory, eight EISA expansion slots and a choice of 100Mb, 160Mb, 330Mb or 660Mb hard disks. VGA is standard on the motherboard and there is provision for a Weitek 4167 co-processor. Currently MS-DOS and Windows are bundled with the machine, but Tulip is promising Unix announcements by the Which Computer? Show in April, and also offers OS/2 as an option. Shipments start in May, and have been delayed due to difficulties making the 80486 work with the EISA chipset, said Tulip UK’s managing director Steve McCall. In the meantime, Tulip has an AT-bus 80486 machine available immediately, with prices starting at UKP7,200. Tulip currently has the capacity to turn out 160,000 boxes a year at is plant near Eindhoven, and plans to up that rate to 300,000 by 1991: meanwhile, the UK, which is Tulip’s second biggest market after Holland, now claims to have achieved a 3% market share.
