Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ucsd!ucsdhub!esosun!seismo!uunet!sco!seanf
From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Message-ID: <2226@scolex.sco.COM>
Date: 6 Feb 89 19:12:55 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <532@geovision.UUCP> <4575@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> <1798@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> <25143@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: seanf@scolex.UUCP (Sean Fagan)
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 20

In article <25143@apple.Apple.COM> baum@apple.UUCP (Allen Baum) writes:
>Of course, IBM was not the only culprit. A friend who once worked for Burroughs
>told me that in order to sell a reduced-cost version of one machine, they had
>to add a whole board of logic to produce delayed versions and phases of clocks
>just to slow the (original) fast machine down. Since it was slower, they could
>sellit for less!

Add CDC to the list.  One of the 170 models (forget which one) had, as the
field service upgrade, the removal of a wire, or replacement with a shorter
one.  Some university figured this out, and told anyone who cared to listen
all about it (although it voided the warantee [contract, actually], of
course).

Later, the 180 states, with reloadable microcode, did what everyone else
does.  Little surprise that CDC won't tell us what the microcode is, is it?

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,
seanf@sco.UUCP   |  the master calls a butterfly."  -- Richard Bach
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.