Info-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU.UUCP (04/03/87)
Info-IBMPC Digest Thursday, 2 April 1987 Volume 6 : Issue 21
This Week's Editor: Billy Brackenridge
Today's Topics:
IBM Announcements
INFO-IBMPC BBS Phone Numbers: (213)827-2635 (213)827-2515
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To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu
Subject: IBM Announcement Summary
Date: Thu, 02 Apr 87 12:15:47 EST
From: Mark Colan <mtc@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
IBM announced this morning a full range of new hardware and software
for the old Personal Computers and the new Personal System/2 computers.
I won't try to list details of everything - the announcement letters
are about 2 inches thick double sided - come by my office to scan the
letters for more details.
Here are the hardware highlights:
* A 114 Mb disk for the RT PC
* IBM Personal System/2 computers all have the display adapters, parallel
port and other hardware normally added to the system via adapters
integrated on the system board. Keep this in mind while comparing
prices. All PS/2 systems are in smaller cabinets than their PC
counterparts, and have lower power requirements.
* PS/2 model 30 8086-based XT replacement - about twice the performance
of the PC/XT - two 3.5" floppies or one 3.5" floppy and 20 Mb disk,
for $1695 and $2295. Display adapter standard on system board allows
256 colors or 64 shades of gray. April 87 availability.
* PS/2 models 50 and 60 - 10 MHz 80286 with new "Micro Channel" bus
architecture. Various disk configurations from 20Mb to 115Mb.
Standard display adapter on system board (called VGA - Video Gate
Array). Prices from $3595 to $6295. April 87 availability (except
for 115Mb version, Second Quarter 87).
* PS/2 model 80 - 16 to 20 MHz 80386-based systems with 80ns memory. Disks
available from 44Mb to 115Mb, up to a total configuration of 230Mb
(with optional disks at extra price). Prices from $6995 to $10995.
July '87 availability.
* Three new ProPrinters
* A 300 DPI laser printer with PostScript(TM) capabilities. The printer
requires an adapter board which is 68000 based and software, which total
just under $5000. Duty cycle is 3000 pages per month, rated speed is
6 pages per minute.
* A 600 DPI Electro-Compositor for producing 600x600 camera-ready masters
or pre-plate negatives for high-quality publishing. Basically a high-
resolution, expensive laser printer for $21,000.
* A range of displays for the new adapters. All have graphics capabilities,
and range in resolution from 640x480 thru 1024x768. Prices from $250
to $1550.
* A music synthesizer adapter providing FM synthesized stereo sound with
MIDI interface for $495.
* New scanners
* An optical disk (write once, read mostly) with 200Mb capacity, internal
(for PS/2 models 60 and 80 only) and external units, ranging in price
from $2365 to $2950. The optical disk cartridge is $65.
* A new adapter to allow use of the streaming tape unit with the new
PS/2 computers.
* A complete assortment of hardware to implement an enhanced network.
And the software:
* DOS 3.30 to support new machines, and some enhancements
* AIX statement of intent: will be ported to PS/2 model 80 (386).
DOS 3.30 will be supported as a task to this version of Un*x.
* Operating System/2, standard and extended editions, with programmers
toolkits. Provides multitasking, breaks 640kb memory limit (limit
becomes 16Mb), built-in graphical user interface which is similar to
MicroSoft Windows but allows overlapped windows.
* New versions of most compilers and other software.
mtc
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Date: Thu, 02 Apr 87 14:27 EST
From: Evan Bauman <GKN3M2%IRISHMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: Impressions of the new PCs
I went to the IBM new product announcement this morning which
was really held in Miami, but received all over the country by
satellite hookup. Here's what I heard along with some comments.
The hardware:
There were 4 basic types of PC's announced and they are
as the Personal System/2. The first is the model
30 which is an XT replacement. It has an 8086 running at 8MHz with
640K installed on the system board. The system board also contains
a parallel port, serial port (25-pin), mouse port, disk controller,
and the video adapter hardware. This video adapter is known as VGA
and supports 640x480 in either 64 shades of grey or 256 colors out of
262,000. The disk drive set-up is either 2x720K three and a half inch
floppies or 1 floppy and a 20MB hard disk. Say good bye to the days of
5 1/4" disks. There are 3 slots that are rotated 90 degrees from
old configuration. I couldn't take the cover off the demo but
I think that they will hold standard expansion cards.
The model 50 is the new desktop AT and runs at 10 MHz. It has a
1.44 MB floppy and a 20 MB hard disk. Otherwise, the number of
goodies on the system board is the same. However, this will not accept
any of the cards presently marketed for AT's. This PC employs what's
known as Micro Channel Architecture which is much faster than the old
style bus. Expect companies like AST and Quadram to start marketing
cards for this new bus real soon.
I was able to play with demos of the 2 above PC's, they are
available immediately. Here are the list prices. Note that educational
discounts are available.
Model RAM floppies hard disk clock speed CPU price
8530 640K 2-720K none 8 MHz 8086 1695
8530 640K 1-720K 20 MB 8 MHz 8086 2295
8550 1Meg 1-1.44 MB 20 MB 10 MHz 80286 3595
Now here's the vaporware. IBM also announced 2 other models.
The first is also an AT box but it stands on the floor. It uses
the same 10 MHz 80286 but comes with either a 44MB or 70MB hard
disk. The 70MB unit has the capability for the addition of a second
70MB drive or a 115MB drive. The hard disks have an ESDI interface.
This model has seven expansion slots.
Also announced was IBM's 80386 machine. 2 models run at 16 MHz
and there's one that runs at 20 MHz. The 16 MHz machines have 1 MB
RAM expandable to 16 MB. The bus is 3 32 bit slots and 4 16 bit
slots. The 20 MHz model comes with 2 MB RAM on the system board.
Users can install up to 4 MB on the system board using 1 MB chips.
The 20 MHz version also comes with the 115 MB disk standard. Here's
the prices.
Model RAM floppies hard disk clock speed CPU price
8560 1 MB 1-1.44 MB 44 MB 10 MHz 80286 5295
8560 1 MB 1-1.44 MB 70 MB 10 MHz 80286 6295
8580 1Meg 1-1.44 MB 44 MB 16 MHz 80386 6995
8580 1Meg 1-1.44 MB 70 MB 16 MHz 80386 8495
8580 2Meg 1-1.44 MB 115 MB 20 MHz 80386 10995
There were 4 new monitors announced. There is a 12" monochrome
monitor which has 640x480 and 64 grey scales. Color monitors are
a 12" 640x480, a 14" 640x480 and a 15" 1024x768. The first two
will work with the built-in video hardware and will also emulate
CGA and EGA. The ultra high-res monitor needs an expansion board.
Owners of old PC's, XT's and AT's can upgrade to the 640x480 video
with an expansion card.
More prices:
8503 MONO 64 shades 640x480 720x400 text $250
8512 COLOR 14" 256 colors 640x480 320x200 $595
8513 COLOR 12" 256 colors 640x480 320x200 $685
8514 COLOR 15" 256 colors 1025x768 $1550
8514/A Display adapter for 1024x768 $1290
Display adapter for 640x480 for PC, XT, and AT $595
I don't really know why, but the 14" color screen is really
less expensive than the 12". It's not a typo. Expect other
companies to market an upgrade board for 640x480 for less $$$.
Lastly, there are some new printers. The ProPrinter II is still
9 pin and has a new courier NLQ font. It runs at 240 cps with a new
operator control panel. The ProPrinter X24 and XL24 are 24 pin
printers with APA graphics. The XL-24 has a wide carriage. The
QuiteWriter III is now even quieter and runs at 192 cps (NLQ) and
120 cps (LQ). The Personal Page printer is IBM's 8 ppm laser
printer. You'll need a special board to run this. The board
contains lots of RAM and the PostScript interpreter.
4216 Personal PagePrinter $2199
4201 ProPrinter II $549
4207 ProPrinter X24 $799
4208 ProPrinter XL24 $1049
5202 QuietWriter III $1699
PostScript board for PPrinter ~$2000
So that's the hardware. I'll leave the software (new OS,
development tools) to those who are more knowledgeable on such
subjects. But beware, IBM's new 80286 OS is expensive at $325.
There was a version of UNIX for the 386 announced as well.
The hardware looks good and it will remain to be seen how companies
like Compaq, Zenith, ITT and PC's Limited respond. It appears
that the new AT bus will be very hard to clone.
I must applaud IBM for finally introducing a very nice video
standard (known as VGA). I ran MS-Windows and PageMaker on the
640x480 mono screen and was very impressed by it's clarity and
readability. The color screen can very nicely reproduce pictures
of fruit bowls, etc.
Evan Bauman
Dep't of chemical engineering
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
gkn3m2@irishmvs (bitnet)
gkn3m2%irishmvs.bitnet@wiscvm.wisc.edu (arpa)
..ihnp4!iuvax!ndmath!ndcheg!evan (UUCP)
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Date: 2 Apr 1987 13:52:19 PST
Subject: New Machines
From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@C.ISI.EDU>
This may be the most significant announcement from IBM so far.
Of course my questions are still the same old questions We have been
asking since 1981. Is the new DOS reentrant? Has IBM added non blocking
Disk BIOS Calls and has Microsoft used them? I could give up a lot of
compatibility in order to improve the current generation of PC network
code with these features!
I'd really like to have one of those 200MB worm drives! Just the thing
for the info-ibmpc library. A post script engine that connects to a PC
would also be wonderful. Most university sites have the networking
technology to make it all work. These sorts of features ought to give
SUN and DEC some competition in networked environments.
Did IBM issue a new set of tech reference manuals? I am sure they have
been available in Hong Kong and Soul for months, but how do we honest
folks get to find out what is going on with the new machines? In the
past clones were on the market before we could get the sort of
technical references we needed to exploit the features of new IBM
hardware. Last Week Richard Bisbey just got the AT Tech Reference manual
for the AT he ordered two years ago. Of course it didn't correspond to
his BIOS so he had to send it back. Unless your name is Lotus it seems
it is getting harder and harder to get tech specs on anything.
I am told that the radio business reports were negative on IBM. The pundits
are saying that IBM can't kill the clones by making new non compatible
machines and keeping proprietary the technical descriptions. I can't believe
IBM won't publish the new BIOS interface specs!
If anybody has on line technical information about these new devices. Please
send it to info-ibmpc. We will publish it and distribute it. Microsoft
and IBM now that the announcement is out, please send us tech info and your
war stories.
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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