Umax Computer Corp plans to ship a 300MHz PowerPC 604e processor in its high-end S900 Macintosh clone by the end of the year. The Umax Data Systems subsidiary based in Fremont, California is also building a model which will conform to the PowerPC common hardware reference specification (CHRP) established by Apple Computer Inc, IBM Corp and Motorola Inc. Umax won’t say when it’ll release its implementation of the spec, which is designed to enable manufacturers to build PowerPC machines which will run Mac, Windows, OS/2 and Solaris operating systems. As predicted (CI No 2,944) Umax will, for the first time, ship entry level PCs and a mid-range box – respectively the SuperMac C500 and C600, and the SuperMac J700 – in September. To date Umax has only sold the high-end systems it acquired from Radius Inc when Radius decided to abandon the Mac clone business. Asked to differentiate its entry-level machines from Power Computing Corp’s latest Mac clones (CI No 2,971), Umax conceded the two lines are very similar in pricing and specification, but said its PCs will ship with more RAM and disk standard.
Umax will sell three uniprocessor C600 machines with 603e chips running at 200MHz, 180MHz or 160MHz speeds. They’ll cost $2,600, $2,200 and $1,700 respectively. The C600s ship with 16Mb to 128Mb RAM, 1.2Gb disk, 256Kb to 1Mb L2 cache, eight speed CD-ROM, internal 28.8Kbps modem and three PCI slots. The C500 uses a 140MHz 603e chip and ships with 8Mb RAM and two PCI slots standard. Prices start at $1,600. The J700 mid-range system has a 150MHz PowerPC 604 chip, 16Mb to 1Gb RAM, 2.1Gb disk, 512K level-2 cache, 6.7 speed CD-ROM and 4 PCI slots. It’ll cost $3,000.
