Motorola Inc’s commercial systems division has introduced a new low-end network server, the Series 8000 Model 8120, to its product line. With a basic design consisting of two self-contained, self-powered and self-cooled modules, the server module and peripheral module, Motorola claims the new machine is virtually user-installable, upgradable and serviceable. In the server module is a 25MHz Motorola 88100 RISC processor with 16Mb memory, six serial ports, Ethernet and SCSI interfaces integrated on a single board and housed in a 3.3 high enclosure weighing less than five lbs. The peripherals modules, for disk and tape expansion, can be integrated together by interconnecting external SCSI and power cables. This enables customers to start off with a diskless system and expand gradually up to 5Gb. Peripherals supported include SCSI disks, tape drives, CD-ROMS and other devices. The modules can have up to 64Mb memory. AIM Benchmark ratings for the new machines are 18.1, with a MIPS rating of 38. Motorola is stacking the machine up against Data General Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, NCR Corp, Dell Computer Corp and IBM Corp systems, saying that the cost of a fully configured system works out at from 10% to 55% cheaper than competitors. Price for a server module, including 16Mb memory, is $4,430.
