Paul Edwards writes:

> Now if HP can get the leasing option and support costs realistic! We
>  will discuss this at the SIGConsult meeting next week.

With a price this low, you basically don't need to purchase either software or
hardware support. Indeed, after analyzing the situation, it has become our
intention to buy a new 918DX every year or so. Doing this, we'll not only get
the newest release of all of the software, including the compilers, but we'll
also build up a spare parts repository -- for substantially less money than
paying the support charges. However, please keep this just between us; it's
something we don't necessarily want to tell HP.

As to leasing, thanks to Bruce Toback's suggestion, we leased our first 918DX
on our American Express Corporate Card, a program that I wasn't aware that
even existed before Bruce mentioned it.

I have no idea what the limit is for the number of 918DX's we can ultimately
purchase, but at $6,700, we intend on buying a few more machines to do such
things as putting them on the internet to demonstrate our software, as well as
the coming features of QCTerm, without the fuss or bother of a firewall. If
someone should purposefully crash the machine, all we have to do is reload it.
This way we get both the very high levels of security intrinsic to an isolated
machine and the benefits of an HP3000 directly connected to the internet at
large.

When the price of an HP3000 drops to a level this low, there are opportunities
that open up that you wouldn't have previously thought of for a mainframe
class machine.

Wirt Atmar