【Toshiba】TP90F Series

Toshiba announced the TP90F series of office servers in April 1996. Previously, with office computers, Toshiba arranged several models with the type of enclosure, CPU, hard drive, etc. determined for each model. After deciding which model to buy, users selected the number of CPUs and hard drives and the size of the main memory to put together a server that met their needs.

For the TP90F series, however, instead of having specific models, Toshiba arranged two types of enclosures, CPUs, hard drives, and hard drive controllers. This allowed users to construct systems to meet their specific applications. For example, the office server could be used as a print server by including a high-speed CPU in a small enclosure or as a communications server by including a medium-speed CPU in a mid-sized cabinet. This was, in a way, a precursor to the built-to-order PCs that many years later would be sold in large volumes over the Net.

In November 1996, Toshiba announced an entry-level model for the TP90F series that came with a CPU, memory, and hard drive controller already housed in a compact system enclosure (an E type system cabinet) for easier system construction. By just selecting the appropriate hard drive size from the available TP90F series’ hard drives, users could readily construct small-scale systems, such as an intra-department server.

Other features of the TP90F series included:

(1) Redundant hard drive construction and hot-swappable hard drives.

(2) When used as a back-end server, the TP90F could operate without a master station (console).