Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rochester!rutgers!lll-lcc!pyramid!octopus!pete
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: What Intel had that nobody else did when PC was designed
Message-ID: <294@octopus.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Aug-87 23:16:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: octopus.294
Posted: Sun Aug  9 23:16:32 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Aug-87 05:44:23 EDT
References: <234@etn-rad.UUCP> <4680001@hprndli.HP> <3233@zen.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Organization: Octopus Enterprises, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 37
Summary: 8087

If I'm not mistaken, there's one major additional reason why the first
PC's were based on the Intel architecture... and I think it probably holds
more weight than the CP/M compatibility issue:

	The 8087 math coprocessor was reasonably unique at the time. Nobody
	else had anything close. And (unfortunately) the 8087 doesn't work
	in non-Intel-chip environments.

From my experience with consulting for IBM, I'd say that CP/M compatibility
was almost certainly a non-issue for them: they design stuff without ever
looking at the 'real world'! If you remember, DOS was only one choice at
the time... the P-system (very un-CP/M-ish) was actually more popular to
begin with!

So leave all the 808x compatibility arguments alone. IBM wanted to design a
PC in an IBM-kind-of-way, and that's what they got. MicroSoft (and Seattle
Computer Systems) just picked an easy solution to the problem of providing
an O/S for what IBM ended up with.

What is the 'IBM-kind-of-way'? As far as I can tell (I think I heard this
from an official source once) it is:

	- Make a GOOD product (no need to push the limits, in general)
	- At an ACCEPTABLE price (amazing what corporate America accepts!)
	- And make BIG PROFITS

	IBM is *VERY* good at making BIG PROFITS. If you look at what they
	do in light of these goals, things tend to make more sense. They
	tend to cut prices only if the profits are threatened sufficiently
	by other companies' market share gains, etc. etc. etc...

Enuf for now!
-- 
  OOO   __| ___      Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
 OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
  OOOOO \___/        UUCP: {hplabs!hpdsd,pyramid}!octopus!pete
___| \_____          Phone: 408/996-7746