Sun's answer to NT - a sub-$5000 Unix boxIn a bid to fend off competition from increasingly powerful Windows NT-based desktop computers, Sun Microsystems unveiled two new lines of Unix workstations, with one system priced at $4900.
Sun's Darwin line, including the Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 computers, was designed to compete head-on with high-end PCs from Compaq Computer and others, the company said.
Answering the 64-bit question
A variety of 64-bit computing platforms due during the next two years should rain down important technical advances that will increasingly bring power to mainstream applications. And although completion of the IA-64 chip architecture from Intel and Hewlett-Packard, set for release in late 1999, is still more than a year away, IT managers need to begin making preliminary plans for moving to 64-bit servers that today only crop up in scientific applications.
Unisys ends hardware
Unisys said it will discontinue its PC and low-end server businesses and outsource the manufacturing of those products. The company will focus instead on its services and enterprise server businesses.
Faster MMX geared for Intel's Katmai
Intel will more than double the number of MMX instructions next year, ushering in a new family of Pentium II processors with higher performance in 3D applications. The "Katmai New Instructions" will debut during the first half of the year in 32-bit Intel Architecture (IA-32) CPUs.