D-Series            low-, mid-, and high-end desktops and laptops
Leading Edge Offers New Line of Low-Priced Systems
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Leading Edge has re-emerged as a new corporation and announced a
new line of low-priced IBM-compatible laptop and desktop systems.
 
Model D/86 has a 15- by 16- by 4-inch chassis with a 10-MHz 8086
CPU, a 720K-byte 3.5-inch floppy-disk drive, 640K bytes of RAM
(expandable to 2.5-megabytes), a 75-watt power supply, and room
for three full-length XT cards. Ports include a PS/2-compatible
mouse-port, a parallel and a serial port. You also get a 101-key
keyboard and a 14-inch analog paper white phosphor VGA monitor.
The basic version also includes DOS 3.3, GW BASIC 3.2. Options
include an extra floppy disk drive, a 30-megabyte 69-millisecond
hard disk drive, and a color VGA monitor.
 
The Leading Edge D2/LPS (low profile system) is a 12-MHz 80286
with the same footprint as the D/86 and most of the same
features. When it's available during the first quarter of next
year, it will include 1 megabyte of RAM (expandable to 4
megabytes), a 1.44-megabyte 3.5-inch floppy-disk drive, an IDE
hard disk controller, two free disk drive bays, three full-length
16-bit expansion slots, and a VGA driver on the motherboard.
 
The new Leading Edge laptops measure 14 by 13 by 3 inches and
weigh less than 13 pounds, including batteries and hard disk
drives. All feature backlit 640 by 400 pixel supertwist monitors,
81-key keyboards that slide out (but don't completely detach),
internal rechargable NiCad battery, MS-DOS 3.3, and GW Basic 3.2.
Microprocessor options include a 10-MHz 80C86, an 80C286, and an
80386SX. The base system, the D/LT86, includes 512K bytes of RAM
(expandable to 2.5 megabytes), two 720K-byte floppy-disk drives,
a 30-watt DC/DC converter, and a 33-watt AC/DC adapter.
 
The 12-MHz 80C286 laptop comes standard with 1 megabyte of RAM
(expandable to 2), a 20-megabyte hard disk drive and with a
3.5-inch 1.44-megabyte floppy-disk drive. The 16-MHz 80386SX
laptop has the same standards as the 286.
 
Leading Edge's new mid- and high-level desktops include an
80386SX, a 20- and a 25-MHz 80386, a 386SX with a Micro Channel
Architecture and a planned EISA system with a 33-MHz 80486 CPU.
 
The D3/S is a 16-MHz 386SX in a small footprint, 16 by 16 by 6
inches. The standard system includes a 5.25-inch 1.2-megabyte
floppy disk drive, room for two more drives, four 16-bit and two
8-bit expansion slots, VGA driver, 1 megabyte of RAM (expandable
to 4), a 200-watt power supply.
 
The D3/20 and the D3/25 are 80386-based systems in AT-size
footprints, measuring 17 by 22 by 6 inches. The 20-MHz system
includes a 5.25-inch floppy-disk drive, 1 megabyte of RAM
(expandable to 8), a VGA controller, a keyboard, and a
200-wattpower supply. The 25-MHz system includes 4 megabytes of
RAM standard and has a 32K-byte cache. Both are available now.
 
The D4, which should be available during the first quarter of
1990, is in the same footprint as the 386 systems yet it includes
a 33-MHz 80486, six 32-bit EISA slots, and two 16-bit slots. The
D3/MC, to be available also during the first quarter, is an
MCA-based system in a slightly smaller footprint than the new XT
and AT. It includes a 1.44-megabyte floppy-disk drive, 1 megabyte
of RAM (expandable to 4), four 32-bit MCA slots, two open
3.5-inch bays for disk drives, and a VGA controller.
 
Price: D/86, $1295; D2/LPS, N/A; D/LT 86, $1695, with 20-megabyte
hard-disk drive, $2195; D/LT286, $2595, with 40-megabyte hard
disk, $2795; D/LT386S, $2795, with 40-megabyte hard-disk drive,
$2995; D3/S, $1795, D3/20, 20-MHz 386 is $2695, D3/25, $4495,
D3/MC, $2295.
 
Contact: Leading Edge Products, Inc., 225 Turnpike St., Canton,
MA 02021, (800) 872-5323, (617) 828-8150.
 
                              --- Roger K. Adams
 
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