Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!unixhub!slacvm!esr
From: ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Positive pc's
Message-ID: <90331.160834ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 28 Nov 90 00:08:34 GMT
References: <594@ssdc?>
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Lines: 40

In response to:

>From: jbasara@ssdc (jim basara)
>Subject: Positive pc's
>Date: 26 Nov 90 14:29:11 GMT
>
>The Price Club here in DC started carrying a series of PCs named Positive.
>They seem to have alot of bang for the buck.  Can someone provide me with
>some information on the company.  I would like to hear from people who
>own/have owned one and who can provide experienced knowledge.  I've heard
>that Positive PCs have been available at the California Price Clubs for
>some time.

According to an article in Computer Currents (Bay Area edition) they are made
by Eltech Research -- a local (Silicon Valley) company based in Fremont, CA
who have been making clones since 1985.  In fact, the PC I am using as a
connection to our mainframe is an Eltech.  SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center) has bought a number of them over the last 2-3 years and we have
found them to be generally quite reliable.

According to the CC article, major Eltech corporate customers include
Lockheed, San Jose State Univ., Univ. of Calif (Berkeley), and the USGummint
-- notably Social Security Admin.  That may not mean diddly squat since it
depends on how much confidence you have in the buyers for these outfits.
It is also not clear what differences there are, if any, between "true"
Eltech units and the Positive units.

All I can say is that the experience at SLAC, to my knowledge, has been
fairly positive.  Eltech is essentially a clone with motherboards (at least
for the 386/486s) designed locally with some components imported from the
Far East.  Usually one has a choice of innards.  Prices are similar to
other similar clones.

I have personally only talked to Eltech once, when I was specifying the
machine I wanted.  The guy across the hall had some sort of memory failure
on one of his which they took back for repairs right away.  He waited a
week or so and called to ask where the machine was.  When the manager found
out it hadn't been returned and no notice had been given of why, he apparently
fired the technician.  It appears they are VERY anxious to provide good
service.