Five years ago: Gateway wants a Pro in every home

While rivals like Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Elonex are touting their Pentium Pro wares as workstations and servers, Gateway 2000 is pushing the chip for its top-end home user systems in readiness for the Christmas rush.

The direct seller has slashed prices on its G6 Pentium Pro-based tower case line, saying the time is right to move the Pro into the mainstream. 180MHz systems start at £1,699 + VAT with 16Mb EDO RAM, 2Gb hard drive, eight-speed CD-ROM drive, Matrox MGC graphics, 17-inch monitor, and Microsoft Office Professional 95. 200MHz Pentium Pro-based systems are also available.

Gateway said that the move to 32-bit software meant users now get better future proofing from the Pentium Pro unless they have firm plans to stay with 16-bit environments.

Gateway 2000 can be contacted by telephone on 0800-552000.

PCDN Comment: Gateway is once again showing its marketing prowess. It may not be the most liked company, but time and again it shows its speed in spotting an opening. For anybody looking at 32-bits, Pentium Pro rather than Pentium is the way to go. This move should hasten the Pro in overtaking its sibling in volumes sometime early in 1997.