Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!SYRAH.NECTAR.CS.CMU.EDU!rds From: rds@SYRAH.NECTAR.CS.CMU.EDU (Robert Sansom) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Sun's Competitive Strategy (Was: Re: P1754 Message-ID: <1990Nov25.162043.23334@cs.cmu.edu> Date: 25 Nov 90 16:20:43 GMT References: <1990Nov16.225515.494@zoo.toronto.edu> <6749@uceng.UC.EDU> <1990Nov21.174938.7861@zoo.toronto.edu> <6769@uceng.UC.EDU> <1990Nov23.181851.26588@zoo.toronto.edu> <11182@pt.c Sender: netnews@cs.cmu.edu (USENET News Group Software) Reply-To: rds@SYRAH.NECTAR.CS.CMU.EDU (Robert Sansom) Organization: Carnegie Mellon University Lines: 39 In article <11182@pt.cs.cmu.edu>, agn@unh.cs.cmu.edu (Andreas Nowatzyk) writes: |> Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI |> |> In article <1990Nov23.181851.26588@zoo.toronto.edu> (Henry Spencer) writes: |> > So why haven't they changed Sun's policies regarding its older systems? |> > As I've asked (rhetorically) before: what possible end can be served by |> > the continuing secrecy regarding the insides of the Sun 2? One would |> > expect secrecy about new systems but a more relaxed attitude about old |> > ones. From Sun, if anything we are getting the reverse! This is why |> > I suggest devious scheming or sheer irrationality as an explanation. |> |> This is plain BS. The Arcons project here at CMU had SUN's schematics for |> the SUN-2 boards. This was necessary to modify the boards for real-time OS |> experiments. You just have to talk to the right people. This is much less an |> issue of secrecy rather an issue of documentation cost. It takes time and |> money to document things to the point that some outsider can make use of it. |> Since there aren't too many customers that are interested in this, SUN has |> better things to do than to produce document kits for obsolete hardware |> (just like most other companies). |> |> On Sbus and Sparc: |> >They won't junk it; they will pull an Intel, announcing a new standard that |> >is a superset of the old one, rendering all the competitors' machines out |> >of date without requiring a total software rewrite. |> |> Sparc International's reference machine is not build by SUN... |> |> -- |> -- Andreas Nowatzyk (DC5ZV) |> |> Carnegie-Mellon University agn@unh.cs.cmu.edu |> Computer Science Department (412) 268-3617 Actually Andreas works for Sun Microsystems these days, not Carnegie Mellon. Robert Sansom, School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 INTERNET: sansom@cs.cmu.edu CSNET: sansom%cs.cmu.edu@relay.cs.net BITNET: sansom%cs.cmu.edu@cmuccvma UUCP: ...!seismo!cs.cmu.edu!sansom