| After four years of intense engineering effort, NuTek
USA is delivering samples of its Mac-compatible chip set,
motherboard, and operating system to computer vendors.
NuTek also announced the Duet, a multiprocessor system
that natively runs Mac and MS-DOS software simultaneously.
(For more information on Nutek, see "NuTek: A Mac Emulator
in Progress," June 1992 BYTE, page 25, and "NuTek Claims
True Mac Clone; No Mac ROMs Required," March 1991 BYTE,
page 28.) If vendors like what they see, Mac compatibles built from NuTek's $899 motherboard and off-the-shelf components could be in stores this summer. NuTek likens the performance of its 33-MHz, 68030-based motherboard to that of Apple's Mac IIvx, and it estimates the street price of a complete system to be about $1600 — perhaps $500 to $1000 less than a comparable IIvx. NuTek's four-part chip set requires its own operating system and does not run Apple's System software. Along with a Mac-compatible motherboard, the Duet (about $2995) adds a 33-MHz, 486-based PC clone to a Mac-compatible motherboard. NuTek claims its machines will run "almost all" of the most important Mac software. But currently, the machines won't run Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Excel or Works. The Mac landscape has changed dramatically since NuTek first embarked on its ambitious project in 1989. Back then, Apple sold only a handful of Macs, prices were steep, and most of the best Mac software wasn't available for PCs. Today, you can choose from more than a dozen different Macs. Color Macs sell for under $1000. Major programs such as QuarkXPress and Photoshop are already migrating to Windows. Copyright 1994-1997 BYTE |