Texas Instruments Inc says it has doubled the processing speed of its Business System 1500 Series computer line by upgrading it to use the Motorola 68030 processor running at 33MHz – twice the speed of the 16MHz 68020 processors used in previous models of the 1500. Texas, which claims to have sold well over 10,000 of its Series 1000 Unix-based systems, says it found the symmetrical multi-processor implementation easier than many of its competitors, because it originally opted for Motorola’s owm memory management unit on the 68020 machines. The 68030 CPU board, used in the new 1520, 1550, and 1590 models, includes 64Kb cache memory, 8Mb of on-board error-checking and correcting random access memory, and a 68882 floating point co-processor. A board with an optional further 16Mb RAM is also available. Texas says that the system design allows 68030 and 68020 processors to co-exist, enabling users to upgrade a system incrementally. The machine runs the company’s System V Unix implementation, which includes Extended Symmetric Processing support, balancing the application load across available CPUs – up to 12 CPUs are theoretically supported on the 1500 series, but around eight appears to be the practical limit. Up to 256 users are supported. Texas claims that Neal Nelson benchmarks show that the new machines run 27% faster than an NCR Tower 32/850, 66% faster than a DEC VAX 6310, 104% faster than a Unisys 5000-95, and 177% faster than a Hewlett-Packard HP9000 Series 840 in similar configurations. Suggested price for a model 1520 with seven slot NuBus chassis, one 68030 CPU, 16Mb RAM, 300Mb disk and 60Mb tape back-up is $84,500, rising to $184,500 for a single CPU 1590 with 16-slot chassis, 24Mb memory, 1Gb disk and 60Mb tape back-up. Additional 68030 CPUs can be added for $44,000 each.
