AST to Intro 486 System Today; Uses Standard AT Bus
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
AST Research will announce today a system based on a 25-MHz 486
CPU that the company says is intended for use as a network file
server, technical workstation, or Unix system. Although the
company expects to soon offer a 486 system using the Extended
Industry Standard Architecture, the new computer utilizes the
standard AT bus.
 
Prices for the Premium 486/25 begin at $8495 for a unit with only
a 5.25-inch floppy drive and 2 megabytes of RAM. The most
expensive model features a 320-megabyte drive and lists for
$12,145. The new Premium 486/25 comes with at least 2 megabytes
of RAM and has seven expansion slots, five disk storage bays, and
the usual parallel and serial ports. It does not include any
cache memory beyond the 8K integrated into the 486 chip.
 
The Premium 486/25 employs AST's Cupid-32 Architecture, which
divides the traditional motherboard into two parts: Stable
functions like I/O and BIOS are located on the baseboard, while
fast-evolving functions such as the CPU and memory are on
removable cards that plug into a special 32-bit slot.
 
AST claims that reducing memory and processor traffic on the
standard bus improves performance of such functions as disk
access, graphics, and communications. AST also argues that the
removable CPU platform allows users to easily upgrade their
systems. In fact, the heart of the new Premium 486/25 was
announced earlier this year as the AST FASTboard 486/25 upgrade
for Premium models based on the 386 and 386SX processors. CPU
cards for any Premium box are interchangeable.
 
AST claims the 486 system shows a performance improvement over
the company's 33-MHz 386 machines of between 20 and 50 percent,
depending on the application. Deliveries are beginning now, AST
says.
 
AST also has a new 386SX system. With list prices starting at
$2095 for a 1-megabyte system with a floppy drive and VGA
graphics board, the Bravo/386SX costs about $400 more than a
similarly configured AST 286.
 
Contact: AST Research, 2121 Alton Ave, PO Box 19658, Irvine, CA
92714-4992; (714) 863-1333.
 
                              --- Andy Reinhardt
 
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