Digital Equipment Corp is officially remaining tight-lipped about its Peripheral Component Interconnect workstation and server launch due on Thursday this week, but over the past few issues we’ve covered just about everything. And last week’s issue of our sister paper Client-Server News filled in the gaps with the name of the three new workstations and four new servers. On the server side is the entry-level uniprocessor 1000 4/200, and dual-processor 2000 4/200; then comes the existing Sable machine renamed as the 2100, followed by the 2100 4/275 in two types of cabinet, and finally the 7000-700 Argon. On the workstation side, the low-end 3000-300 X and LX, launched in February, are still selling and will remain the entry-level systems. Above them are three new machines, the 200 4/166, 200 4/233 desktops and 400 4/233 minitower. All use the 21064 Alpha or the shrunken 275MHz 21064A. The high-end DEC Argon is the performance tweak long-promised and expected at mid-year, for the 7000 Series to as many as six 275MHz Alpha 21064A chips, though it keeps to the old naming conventions until the future 12-way system moves over from the current (and inappropriately named) FutureBus to PCI. The iAPX-86-based additions to the line, including perhaps a server running Windows NT and Santa Cruz Operation Inc Unix, once expected to be unveiled simultaneously with the new Alpha systems, may have to wait for an extra week or so. And DEC is expected to revamp its distribution strategy away from named accounts and towards its third party partners, under the umbrella of Enrico Pesatori’s new worldwide Systems Business Unit.
