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From: bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.arch,net.micro.att
Subject: AT&T MIPS claim
Message-ID: <721@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 1-Jun-86 14:15:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.721
Posted: Sun Jun  1 14:15:35 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Jun-86 23:26:46 EDT
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
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From: dfh@scirtp.UUCP (David F. Hinnant)
> I just read some trade rag that had an ad in it from Ma Bell about
>the UNIX PC.  They made this interesting claim that the UNIX PC gives
>you "75% of the power of a VAX 11/780" for "only 7% of the cost".
>Arrgh.  Come on guys.

There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal a few days
ago saying that Convergent Tech (maker of the UNIX/PC) is basically
in deep s**t over this product as AT&T has cut orders to almost nil.
I think they said a total of 10,000 were sold, around 7,000 of those
internally to AT&T. There was some mumble therein about it not being
compatible with International Business Machine's computers and it may
have been "ahead of its time".

I dunno, I have one here to play with, I think it's a neat machine.
Obviously AT&T blew the marketing (just listen to you!) I think back
when we time-shared a PDP-11/10 with 28KW of memory and 5MB (RK05) of
disk (what? 1978!)  and am truly astounded by this box tho it may be a
bit pricey for its market (arguable, I'd take it over a PC/AT any day.)
For example, besides the 68010 it is, I believe, the only machine in
the PC class (price, design) with paging and virtual memory.

Too bad, I think it *is* ahead of its time and I also think its probable
death as a product can be laid to blame on letting the guys in the
twelve-piece suits do the product strategy. Sigh. And I am sure they'll
point to it and use it as an example of *ANYTHING* but their own stupidity.

If *I* were king (:-) I woulda provided an ethernet interface, TCP/IP
and sold it like hotcakes to every University short on UNIX cycles.  I
have always been leary of the required computer purchase policy of
some universities but this box I might have gotten behind just because
UNIX provides a) so many of the things a student needs (languages,
word processing, games!*, in a uniform, single system manner) b) when
it gets obsolete they can move onto another UNIX box with all their
files c) a little file-transfer and they can work with the 'big' UNIX
systems at school and d) for programming students UNIX provides a
realistic development environment with real tools and software
conventions etc much more representative of larger systems, I find
too much of the micro environment to encourage ad hoc programming
(the poke/peek mentality.)

It should have been a real competitor to the Mac. A better screen
would have helped also. I think Convergent got scrod. For a single
user it really is roughly 750 equivalent or a little better, I think
you exaggerate a little in the other direction (obviously the issue
here is I/O bandwidth.) I also think ATT had a problem with the
UNIX/PC's close proximity to the 3B2 and Olivetti/6300 (especially
when Xenix came out.) It fit in the middle, but the middle was just
too small for the business world they pointed it at. Rule zero of
marketing a computer is NEVER confuse the customer with
indistinguishable (to them) choices, they'll go somewhere else
entirely if possible, they perceive it as lack of focus on the part of
the company (and in this case they would have been right, although
it's self-fulfilling.) Oh well, too bad, maybe it's not too late if
it truly is "ahead of its time".

	-Barry Shein, Boston University

* I realize they unbundled a lot of this software but I think most
dealers were making deals to put it back at minimal cost to make the
sales and I'm sure any volume promise such as a required PC purchase
could easily have worked those packages back in.