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From: mark@dmcnh.UUCP (Mark Roddy)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc,net.arch
Subject: Re: IBM RT PC - Open-ness
Message-ID: <229@dmcnh.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 08:49:55 EST
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Posted: Fri Feb 14 08:49:55 1986
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Xref: watmath net.micro.pc:6977 net.arch:2522

> 
>   I didn't see anything in the announcement about availability
> of these chips by themselves.  If these chips are not
> available, it might be very difficult (impossible?) for
> competitors to build directly competitive machines - they would
> be limited to supplying add-on boards.  This is quite a 
> difference from the present situation with the 8088 and 80286
> based micros, because of the use of an available cpu chip.
> 
>   Of course in the good old days every computer had a 
> proprietary instruction set - have we come to expect a
> different situation?
> 
And in the good old days, the plug compatible manufacturers made quit a
bit of money underselling IBM. Proprietary chip sets raise the ante to
enter the game, but they don't make it impossible to be competitive.