Apple beefs up network and workgroup servers

Electronic News, Sept 16, 1996

Cupertino, Calif.--Apple Computer spiced up its network and workgroup server offerings last week. The company added 200MHz PowerPC chips to its workgroup and network servers and discussed future developments for its network server line.

The new workgroup servers may now be configured with 200MHz PowerPC 604e chips. The model 8500 includes 32MB of DRAM along with the 200MHz processor, while the Model 7250 includes a 120MHz processor and a 2GB disk drive. Both servers have been upgraded with eight-speed CD-ROM drives. The Workgroup Server 7250 (120MHz processor) will be priced at $2,689, while the Model 8550 (200MHz) will sell for between $5,799 and $7,399, depending on the hardware configuration and software package. All servers are expected to be available next month.

Like the 8500 workgroup server, Apple's network server 700 is now also available with a 200MHz 604e PowerPC processor. The network server 700 family also includes a high-capacity 3.5-inch Fast/Wide SCSI-2 9-gigabyte disk drive, an 8-speed CD-ROM drive and a PCI FDDI card. 200MHz upgrade cards will be available for customers of Apple's existing network servers model 500, 132MHz and model 700, 150MHz. The network server 700 starts from $16,129 in a configuration with one 200MHz processor, 48MB of DRAM and two 4GB Fast/Wide SCSI-2 drives.

Looking to the future, Apple revealed plans to add symmetric multi-processing capabilities in the network server product line early next year. Apple's first SMP server systems are expected to feature two 200MHz PowerPC 604e processors and 1MB of in-line L2 cache per processor to provide performance increases of up to 1.8 times. Apple also signed an OEM agreement with Exabyte to provide Exabyte's next-generation Mammoth 8mm Tape Drives for inclusion in Apple's network servers. The Mammoth drives have capacity of up to 40 gigabytes per single data cartridge and a 6-megabytes-per-second transfer rate.

Oracle has also certified its Universal Server for Apple's network servers based on the IBM AIX operating system. The certification provides Apple customers with a range of Oracle solutions from clients to servers including Oracle Power Objects, Personal Oracle 7 and Oracle 7. The companies are also working on product certifications of the Oracle Workgroup Server, WebServer release 2.0 and Developer/2000 products for the new Network Servers. u