Two high-end Power Macintosh clones are scheduled to make their entrances this week – the multiprocessor system from Flowery Branch, Georgia-based DayStar Digital Inc (CI No 2,610) and the Radius System 100 from Radius Inc. DayStar is calling its machine the Genesis MP, billed will be the first multiprocessor Mac on the market, with a DayStar-developed symmetric multiprocessing software extension called nPower that is expected to be adopted by Apple Computer Inc. DayStar says it calls the technology pseudo-symmetric because it is symmetric within the application but asymmetric within the Mac OS Toolbox – that has to run on a single master processor, but modified applications can distribute computing tasks across several processors. DayStar will s how only single- and dual-processor models this week, with deliveries set for August, but plans four-processor models early next year. Using 120MHz PowerPC 604s, they come with eight drive bays, three PCI slots, 32Mb memory, 512Kb cache, a 2Gb hard drive, and a quad-speed CD-ROM drive. A special extension for Adobe Systems Inc’s PhotoShop speeds up the application from the motherboard and it comes with Mac OS and Eastman Kodak Co’s colour-management software; DayStar is looking for a graphics accelerator company to bundle boards with its systems, which will cost between $5,000 and $15,000, are aimed at the high-end media-publishing market. Meantime the Radius System 100 is a fully-configured system designed specifically for the publishing industry, but costs a daunting $12,500. It uses a 110MHz PowerPC 601 with 40Mb memory, a 500Mb disk and a 2Gb SCSI disk, the Adobe PhotoShop, and Radius’s Thunder GX-1600 graphics board with four signal processors for PhotoShop hardware acceleration – but the price does not include a monitor. Radius, San Jose says it will ship 400 systems immediately to test consumer response to the machine, and full shipments will begin in mid-June.
