Digital repaves low road

Responding to new low-end offerings from competitors such as Compaq, Digital Equipment (DEC) today rolled out two new low-cost Pentium Pro-based servers to round out its Prioris line.

The Prioris MX 6200 is targeted for use as an email server, or Internet or intranet server, while the Prioris XL 6000 is being positioned as a file and print server; Digital says both are priced below similar, competing products.

With both new systems, Digital is including its ServerWorks software for simplifying management of networks and remote servers. Internal hardware monitoring is also an option; for example, the MX 6200's fans, power supplies, CPUs, memory and disk system can be monitored through Digital's Intelligent Server Management software.

Digital says the new lines come with 200-MHz Pentium Pro processors with 256KB on-chip cache. The MX 6200 is also available in a dual processor version, and adds integrated 32-bit graphics and hot-pluggable drives that can be replaced on the fly.

Other standard features include Wide-Ultra SCSI controllers, which allows for data transfer rates up to 40 MB per second. The original SCSI standard for interfacing between a computer and devices such as hard disk drives or printers allows for data transfer rates up to only 5 MB per second.

Also included: a built-in 10/100 Ethernet network controller and a 12X CD-ROM drive. Both systems can be clustered for data backup purposes using Digital Clusters for Windows NT.

Digital says the new servers will be available this month, with street prices for the XL 6000 starting in the mid-$2,000 range. The MX 6200 is expected to have an estimated street price in the mid-$3,000 range.