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From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: help with at&t models
Message-ID: <36024@cup.portal.com>
Date: 17 Nov 90 09:07:38 GMT
References: <11246@milton.u.washington.edu> <38178@rphroy.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 48

tkacik@rphroy.uucp (Tom Tkacik) in <38178@rphroy.UUCP> writes:

	The 6300 is AT&T's PC clone.  It and newer versions all use
	the INTEL 8086 family (ie. 8086, 80286, 80386).
	The original was a DOS machine, the newer ones are able to run Unix.

It's my recollection AT&T's 6300 pre-dated the IBM machines; i.e. the IBM PC
arrived on the scene AFTER the 6300.  The 6300 was mfd by Olivetti under their
own name, then AT&T picked it up as the 6300.

	The 7300, UnixPX, and 3b1 are different names for the same machine.
	The 7300 was sold with less memory and a smaller disk.
	They all use the Motorola 68010 processor,
	and run Unix SYS5.2, (ok a slight variant).
	The 3b1 (7300) was discontinued before there a second machine was
	introduced.
	It is now an orphan, but one with a captive following.
	I have one, it's a great machine.
	The unix-pc.* newgroups are devoted to the 3b1.
                                    ^^^^^^^
Devoted?  Sheesh, we WORSHIP the machine!  Aye, yes, Stellar Acolyte Thad
swinging dead chickens over his head and dancing under the full moon in
his Jockey shorts while deciphering the mystical CURSES runes, stictioned
rotating memories, the glorious wonders of /etc/lddrv and the intricacies
of HDB uucp!  :-)  :-)

And "UnixPX"?  Gee, you must have been in the US Army! :-)   Adding to Tom's
comments, the UNIXPC was manufactured by Convergent Technologies for AT&T,
and shares its basic design with CT's S4 and MiniFrame line; another variant
is the Motorola 6300 (6350 if two HDs).  These systems are all (essentially)
software compatible.  Convergent is now a part of UNISYS.

AT&T ads in places like Electronic Design, the IEEE mags, etc. referred to
the same system by three different names: PC7300, 3B1, and UNIXPC.  I found
some of those old ads as I started cleaning out my garage recently.  The
May 1986 issue of BYTE magazine had a 10-12 page "System Review" of the UNIXPC
in which it compared quite favorably to a VAX 11/780 per the test results;
though the tests were biased: VAX with 4MB RAM and two mongo disks, and the
UNIXPC with just 1MB RAM and a dinky 65mS 10 MB clunker HD; when you equip the
UNIXPC with 4MB RAM and "reasonable" HDs it screams even faster than a Mac II
per my own tests.

And, note, AT&T's latest 7300 line of computers is NOT the same as the UNIXPC;
I believe the "new" 7300 line comprises what could be termed large-minis or
small-mainframes (from descriptions I've heard and snippets of info in AT&T's
UNIX Training bulletins).
 
Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]