X terminals are becoming more and more exotic, and if your terminal doesn’t sing and dance as well as supporting the X Window System, you might as well pack up and go home. Now SunRiver Data Systems Inc, successor company to Hauppauge, New York-based Applied Digital Data Systems, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of All Quotes Inc (which said it would change its name to SunRiver) has unveiled a new line of X-stations that it promises bring the power of multimedia to the world of Unix-based multi-user systems. The new SunRiver CXLE 3531 X-Station, presumably using the same Intel Corp 80960 RISC processor as its other family members, combines desktop audio, video and telephony capabilities, and implements the Sbus so it can pick up the base of peripherals in the Sparc world. The CXLE 3531 X-Station is designed for information centres needing concentrated telephony-based customer interaction, such as customer service, telemarketing sales and data centres. SunRiver will ship about 10,000 units to AT&T Corp for intern al use at its information centers by year-end, and Bell Atlantic Corp has also has placed orders for the X-Station for use in their information centres – all of which raises the question why did AT&T sell the company in the first place? A CXLE 3531 X-Station user can simultaneously talk to a customer through the terminal’s integrated headset connector, access multiple databases and applications, review and replay television commercials in another window and share radio and television commercial audio with the customer. Orders are being taken for the CXLE 3531; it’s available from SunRiver and distributors, and from AT&T Global Information Solutions. Prices for the terminals go from $2,845 to $7,000 depending on memory and screen.
