Xerox Offers Data System

By Peter J. Schuyten
The New York Times

November 19, 1980

The Xerox Corporation moved a step closer to the office of the future yesterday by introducing a business information system that links different types and makes of automated office products into a single integrated whole.

The new system, called the Xerox System 8000, is an extension of the company's previously announced Ethernet local, or interoffice, communications network. The new system is intended to allow users to create, file, print and distribute documents and data electronically.

The move, according to industry observers, not only maintains Xerox's lead in the embryionic market for local networks but also appears to bolster its bid to become a dominant factor in the automated office of tomorrow against such competitors as the International Business Machines Corporation.

''This is part of a new strategy on Xerox's part to provide a viable alternative to I.B.M. in offering total office systems solutions,'' said Melody Johnson, an analyst with Kidder, Peabody & Company. ''In the past,'' she continued, ''Xerox has always played a me-too game, never stepping out and becoming a market leader. Now they are saying, 'We will be out there first with the broadest possible communications system and, unlike I.B.M., ours will work with a variety of products.' ''

System's Versatile Basis

The Xerox System 8000 comprises new office products, including a laser-based printer as well as a data and document storage device, also known as an electronic file cabinet.

More important, it includes two communications controllers that not only allow users to connect competitive equipment, including computer systems, to the local network but also allow them to link Ethernet itself to other, external communications networks such as the Satellite Business Systems SBS network or Xerox's own proposed XTEN service.

''The key t o the automated office is in providing a system that allows users to weld together any number of separate and independent pieces of equipment,'' said Sanford J. Garrett of Paine Webber Mitchell Hutchins Inc, adding, ''With this system Xerox has indeed taken the full plunge.''

Although most of the attention in the communications industry these days focuses on large telecommunications systems, or so-called external networks, for linking offices and office equipment in geographically distant locations, the office products industry is increasingly concerning itself with developing local or interoffice networks.

These would link up such diverse equipment within an office as word processors, computer terminals and so-called intelligent copiers. Other companies expected to announce their version of a local network include I.B.M., Wang Laboratories, Exxon Enterprises, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the M/A-Com Corporation, a growing communications equipment and systems supplier based in Burlington, Mass.

Analysts Express Caution

But industry analysts also have reservations about local networks, the main one being that users may not yet be ready for them.

''The trouble with Ethernet, and for that matter any other local network, is that except in very few applications they are not cost justifiable,'' said Dale Kutnick, director of research for the Yankee Group, a telecommunications consulting firm. ''Nevertheless, users are beginning to wake up to the fact that building an internal communications network that is compatible with a variety of different equipment will shortly be very important.''

Ethernet - which was introduced a year ago by Xerox and developed further in a joint effort by Xerox, the Intel Corporation and the Digital Equipment Corporation - uses a coaxial cable to speed digital information at the rate of 10 million bits a second.

Indeed, the company has previously announced the introduction of two new office products, the Xerox 860 word processing system and the 5700 intelligent copier, designed to work on the Ethernet network.

The document storage system, known as File Server, is capable of storing up to 10,000 pages of information. It is priced to sell between $21,000 and $28,000 and will lease on a one-year agreement for $895 to $1,185.

The laser printer, or print server, operates at a speed of 3,000 words, or 12 pages, a minute and costs $30,000. The lease price for the same unit is $1,135 a month.

The communications controllers are priced at $14,000 and $21,000.

GRAPHIC: Illustrations: Drawing of the new Xerox 8000 system and how it works

Copyright 1980 The New York Times Company