Due to ship in June, the Power Mac 7200/120 will come with a pre-installed card that uses either a Pentium 100-MHz processor or a Cyrix 5X86 100-MHz processor to let users run both OSes and even toggle between the two.
The Pentium/PowerPC system will cost $2,799 and the Cyrix/PowerPC system $2,599. Standalone cards will cost $1,049 for the Pentium processor and $799 for the 5X86 processor. The previous PC add-on card available for the PowerMac only ran at x86 speeds.
Observers said the offering of more cross-platform solutions does not mean that Apple is giving up the fight for its own operating system and processor technology.
"It's not an admission that [they're] giving up the game," said Pieter Hartsook, editor of the Hartsook Letter. "But there is a recognition that Microsoft is a dominant force and that customers want more open solutions."
Apple officials also acknowledged that they plan to release a Windows NT-based PowerPC server by the end of 1996. Windows NT was included in a broad licensing agreement between Apple and Microsoft signed in February, giving Apple "access to any and all Microsoft operating systems," a company spokeswoman said.
The PowerPC platform also supports the AIX and Solaris flavors of Unix.
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