Todd Motors orders new Burroughs A3 mainframe

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 38

Todd Motors orders new Burroughs A3 mainframe

Todd Motors, Ltd, of Porirua, last week ordered a Burroughs A 3 small mainframe after the world-wide announcement of the new A 3 family of computers. Another Wellington organisation, as yet unnamed, ordered an A 3 on the same day. The A 3 is the second family of processors in the Burroughs A series of mainframes, which will eventually become the standard Burroughs offering in that market. Burroughs has used new hardware and software technologies in the A 3 family, including 256 K-bit memory chips. The high-uensity memory chips, only now becoming available in production quantities, allow Burroughs to get three megabytes of memory on one circuit board. Small by mainframe standards, the A3’s cabinet

also contains from one to four 125-megabyte fixed disc drives. With a price range from $209,000 to $1 million, the A 3 computers offer twice the power of existing 81000 models at a similar price. Burroughs mainframe range now comprises 81000, A 3, 85900, A 9 and 87900 families. The A 9 family is the other new Burroughs A series family, announced early this year. The first A 9 computer in New Zealand, at New Zealand Steel in Glenbrook, was installed last week. Todd Motors is also to install an A 9 computer, with the A 3 being used for software development Although the 81000, 85900 and 87900 families will continue to be sold, Burroughs says that the future lies in the A series. The older models, t while offering a great deal of compatibility at the high-level language

level, are not fully compatible with each other and with the A series internally. Burroughs is encouraging its existing customers to gradually enhance their software to a stage where it is compatible with the A series. The A 3 family is completely compatible with the A 9. “Productivity and software development costs are the name of the game in the industry today,” said Mr Michael Goldrick, general manager of Burroughs in New Zealand. “The software investment protection across an entire mainframe range gives Burroughs a major price-performance advantage over our competitors.” “We are obviously very proud of our new baby,” said Mr Goldrick. “We believe we have a state-of-the-art technology.”