Sycor Unveils New Computer - May Eliminate Central Unit

Typical Sycorlink Network

Any station can link up with any network file on any disk in the Sycorlink model, the company says. And any file on any disk can be printed on any printer. Any Sycor 445 unit can be off line for repairs or maintenance, and the rest of the network will operate.

May Eliminate Central Unit

Sycor Unveils New Computer

By Jim Norman 

BUSINESS-LABOR WRITER

Sycor, Inc., here has unveiled a remote computer terminal system twice as powerful as its largest existing model and able to be linked with similar units to possibly eliminate the need for a central “host” computer.

The Sycor 445 announcement came back-to-back with a similar presentation by its chief rival in the distributed data processing business. Datapoint.

TOGETHER with rising telephone rates, the two developments may further limit the market for large central computers as companies opt to handle more of their data processing in individual offices.

For Sycor, which last week reached agreement to merge with Canadian telephone Giant Northern Telecom, Inc., the 445 offers a product on the top end of its existing product line aimed at larger customers.

Each machine can support eight video display terminals and eight printers plus 70 million characters of memory.

That is twice the power of Sycor's year-old 440 system and can operate terminals over twice the distance — up to 2,000 feet from the central processor.

In addition. Sycor has developed a networking capability called Sycorlink that allows multiple 445 systems to be hooked up in tandem, creating potentially large office data systems.

SYCOR SAYS it did not introduce the machinery with the intent to displace larger minicomputer systems. But that appears to be the way the market is heading as terminals get “smarter” and more powerful.

The 445's purchase price is slightly over $60,000. which is more than 20 per cent less than comparable IBM or Datapoint offerings, according to Sycor senior vice president Paul C. LaVoie.

The lease price is about $1.300 a year.

LaVoie notes the 445 allows a growing company to buy just the computing power it needs and then add on as required. For Sycor, the networking feature assures a long life for its 445 lease base by preventing its early obsolecense.

THAT LEASE base of terminal gear has reached a gross value of $30 million, which has been rapidly depreciated to about $15 million. Domestic lease revenues in the first three quarters of the year were more than $16 million or about 20 per cent of Sycor's total revenues.

According to Sycor officials, the 445 is expected to generate new clients rather than displace Sycor machines already being leased.

Since most companies using the 445s will be large, Sycor expects its customers will develop most of their own programs for operating the machines. Smaller companies acquiring the systems will be able to buy such software through Sycor's recently developed distributor organization.

Field testing of the 445s will begin in about two months, with customer deliveries scheduled to begin in May. By the end of 1978, the clustered-terminals 440 and 445 systems will account for well over half Sycor's total production. Much of the rest will be in a new Model 290 on-line remote computer terminal.