Announcing new models and a new retail distribution strategy for its Prosignia line of business PCs yesterday, Compaq Computer Corp also handed a significant filip to technology partners Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Santa Cruz Operation Inc.

Compaq said it will for the first time begin selling Prosignia notebooks fitted with AMD chips and is to use a version of SCO’s UnixWare operating system as the basis of a new class of Prosignia NeoWare ‘appliance’ servers, the first designed to enable customers to set up office networks supporting up to 25 computers.

Compaq says a new Prosignia 150 notebook line will use AMD K6-2 chips running at up to 380MHz starting at $1,800. Although new PC Data numbers show that in February AMD’s chips were for the first time used in more than 50% of desktop PCs sold through retail outlets, it’s the first time that leading vendor has turned to AMD’s low-cost Intel iAPX-86-compatible parts for business computers. Manufacturing problems and a price war with Intel has reportedly led to AMD selling chips for under $70, some $30 less than it would like, and Compaq’s endorsement should help AMD win other customers in the business PC market.

The new Prosignia NeoServers are available in Standard and Internet Plus configurations with a 500MHz Pentium III (model 740) or 450MHz Pentium II (720). They run a version of SCO’s SMB small business appliance Unix server under the hood to provide a set of fixed functions including file and peripheral sharing, backup, remote access and security. The internet version offers web access and email while Compaq has partnered with GTE Internetworking for internet access and web hosting in North America. Nowhere in its NeoServer material does Compaq even refer to the SCO Unix operating system as both companies say all Unix features are effectively hidden to users and administrators by web-based management software. The only reference to SCO is in the software license agreement.

Compaq is SCO’s first OEM win for the new appliance-oriented cut of UnixWare. Although Compaq does more than $2bn annually on PC servers running SCO, the relationship is not one that it likes to talk about these days. To begin with, Compaq has its own Unix implementation acquired with DEC which it is porting to Intel’s 64-bit IA-64 architecture as Tru64 Unix, while SCO has hitched its own 64-bit future to an Intel version of IBM Corp’s AIX Unix it is helping to create called Monterey64. Compaq has said it will continue to use SCO as its 32-bit Unix of choice for business customers. It also used to say it would use SCO as its preferred choice of Unix on volume 64-bit Intel platforms, though we haven’t heard that message for some time. NeoServer prices start at $1,400 for the 720 and $1,700 for the 740. New Prosignia desktops with Pentium III cost from $1,800.