Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bu-cs!encore!pinocchio!cook
From: cook@pinocchio.Encore.COM (Dale C. Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.encore
Subject: Is there an interest here about the Encore (ex-Gould) NP/1 ?
Summary: Some Clarifications
Message-ID: <10485@encore.Encore.COM>
Date: 29 Nov 89 16:02:00 GMT
Sender: news@Encore.COM
Reply-To: cook@encore.com
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Organization: Santa's Helpers, Woodville Division, AFLCIO
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[zawada@EN.ECN.PURDUE.EDU (Paul J Zawada) recently posted that: 
|
|You bet there is interest, but not enough at Encore!  Here at Purdue,
|we have the very first NP/1 ever built - en.ecn.purdue.edu.  (The Beta 
|test machine.) It was given to Purdue for testing before it became a official 
|production machine.  (As well as it's predecesor, the PN 9080.)  George 
|Goble (ghg) still hammers on the machine when a new bug shows it's head.
|However, it looks like the NP series is dead after the NP/1 orders 
|are filled.  A few prototype NP/2s were built before encore bought the
|Gould Computer division. However, according to ghg, these NP/2s were
|cut up and sold as scrap after Encore bought Gould.  One was packed
|up, sitting on the loading dock, waiting to be shipped here.  It never
|made it.  Sigh.  Since then, the people who designed the NP/1 and NP/2
|in San Diego were fired and the whole place was auctioned off.  Apparently, 
|Encore management is not interested in big machines.
|
|pjz...
|
Again, I want to start by stating that I have about as much say so here
as Joe the janitor, but I think this posting does the company an injustice
and I'm going to speak up!

Yes, NP2, the follow on to NP1, was cancelled.

When Encore bought Gould/SEL it was obvious that some drastic action had
to be taken to stauch the financial bleeding that had brought down Gould.
Further, it had to be taken quickly or there wasn't going to be any more
Gould or Encore!

The NP line, though technically successful, was loosing money.  A lot of
money.  The decision to kill off that line was a BUSINESS one.  We are
a business.  We have stockholders.  We can't do a lot of research "for
the good of all mankind" without funding.  It just doesn't work that
way in capitalism.
|
From my brief association, mostly over the mails, with the engineers
at San Diego and elsewhere in the company who worked on NP, I believe
these people were not "fired" because of any lack of technical expertise.
There just weren't enough sales to support keeping all of the products
and people in the new combined organization.

To judge from the choices made that "Encore management" is not interested
in "big machines" is just totally off the mark!  Are you aware, for
example, of our DARPA funded Gigamax project?  I'd say that qualifies
as a pretty "big" machine!  Without getting specific, I can say that
there are plans afoot to address all product-points in our markets --
including the high end.  Patience, Boilermakers!

|Paul J Zawada				|   zawada@ee.ecn.purdue.edu    
|"E-site" Student Consultant		|  ...!pur-ee!zawada
|Purdue University			|    
|Engineering Computer Network		|    GO BOILERS!!!

        - Dale (N1US)   Encore Computer Corporation, Marlborough, Mass.

INTERNET:  cook@encore.com	"Millions long for immortality who don't
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