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From: hsu@eneevax.UUCP (Dave Hsu)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.arch
Subject: Re: What if IBM Had chosen the 68000?...
Message-ID: <426@eneevax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Nov-85 10:26:02 EST
Article-I.D.: eneevax.426
Posted: Wed Nov 27 10:26:02 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 21:44:06 EST
References: <261@opus.UUCP> <4616@alice.UUCP> <143@heurikon.UUCP>
Reply-To: hsu@eneevax.UUCP (Dave Hsu)
Organization: Imperial Widget Research Center, Kingdom of Maryland
Lines: 35
Xref: watmath net.micro:12893 net.arch:2196

In article <143@heurikon.UUCP> dave@heurikon.UUCP (Dave Scidmore) writes:
>> Well, IBM *DID* choose the 68000... to use in a little box
>> they called the CS9000.  Apparently it didn't catch on.
>> 
>As I recall (my memory may be faulty) the CS9000 was a lab machine designed
>for an entirely different market than the "PC." It seems obvious to me that
>a machine designed for lab use would generally be more expensive than a
>business machine and incorporate features that the business market would not
>be willing to pay for. To expect a machine that was designed for one
>application to "catch on" in another does not make sense. In addition the
>machine mentioned did not have nearly the marketing thrust behind it that the
>PC did. Proof of this is the fact that it is such a little known machine.
>
I don't remember seeing much hoopla about the 9000 either.  The PC, by 
contrast, enjoyed such popularity as an untried product, that IBM employees
found themselves waiting at the end of a 6+ month waiting list at times.
Although (and I know some of you must share this suspicion) I believe that
IBM at times uses about 3 times as many parts as necessary to accomplish
anything, another problem facing the 9000 was that its parts density, according
to the Byte/IBM interview, exceeded commercial manufacturing limits until only
a few months before its release.  Not exactly a tiny machine for what it did,
the 9000 was ill suited to be mass-marketed and serviced.

-dave
[std disclaimer goes here; I have no connection to Ichi Bichi Motors, or any
 other company sharing their initials.]
-- 
Spoken: David Hsu	ARPA: 	hsu @ eneevax.umd.edu	hsu @ mit-prep.arpa
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USnail: Communication & Signal Processing Lab, Dept of Electrical Engineering
	University of Maryland,  College Park, MD 20742

"I realized my destiny when God came to me in a dream and told me
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