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From: grunwald@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: IBM advanced workstation
Message-ID: <13900017@uiucdcsb>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 19:16:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.13900017
Posted: Mon Oct 14 19:16:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Oct-85 05:46:00 EDT
References: <7043@ucla-cs.ARPA>
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Nf-ID: #R:ucla-cs.ARPA:-704300:uiucdcsb:13900017:000:959
Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!grunwald    Oct 14 18:16:00 1985


IBM came and gave a talk at UIUC concerning a 'proto-type' 802 (CMOS 801) based
workstation built around the IBM PC. No non-disclosure agreement was signed by
any of the people that I know of, so I'll divulge what was said:

Basically, they used the PC as an I/O processor. The 8088 handles disk I/O to
the 802 system through a shared-memory buffer. Even with double-copy (disk to
8088 (DMA), 8088 to 802 memory, 802 to final resting place), the 8088 was not
the bottle neck.

they used an expansion box with multi-megabytes in it. They also had a graphics
board for the thing. The 802 is about 1 -> 2 MIPS if I recall correctly. They
had UNIX 4.2BSD up and running a year ago. At that time, they said that they
weren't going to market the box (but then again, see PC Week from sometime in
late july to early august -- rumors about an 802 based system).

that's basically all they told us, but yes, some prototype did exist.

dirk grunwald
grunwald@uiuc.arpa