Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!johnm From: johnm@cup.portal.com (John - Madison) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Sun != Open Archtecture Message-ID: <38046@cup.portal.com> Date: 15 Jan 91 03:52:52 GMT References: <2199@aber-cs.UUCP> <5177@auspex.auspex.com> <5232@auspex.auspex.com> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 21 >A Sun 386i to Sun486i upgrade is part number UG-RR-350 list price $5,995 >discount category A .... The 486i was listed in the Sun price list. However, it was never generally available and never quite worked. Sun publically claimed that bugs in the chip prevented it from running UNIX, that they couldn't get enough chips, and other reasons for not shipping. Internally, Sun decided to stop porting new versions of the os to the x86 machines. The 386i code was based on 4.0 beta, and was extensively modified, so incorporating the new features delivered in later versions of SunOS was very difficult. Meanwhile, unsold 386i's collected in the warehouse. Eventually, Sun killed off the machine when (1) they realized that the market for the machine was pretty small (2) the people who did buy it would be *very* upset when they learned that future versions of Sunos would not available for the 486i. It is interesting to note that the (ex) Sun employee with overall responsibility for the 386/486 was the same person who brought us the DEC Rainbow. :-)