Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!lightsabre!kenobi
From: kenobi%lightsabre@Sun.COM (Rick Kwan - Sun Intercon)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: IBM PC prehistory
Message-ID: <129994@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 8 Jan 90 21:42:47 GMT
References: <1546@aber-cs.UUCP> <33896@mips.mips.COM> <21559@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1989Dec30.235854.14254@world.std.com> <10131@microsoft.UUCP> <250@dg.dg.com>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: kenobi@sun.UUCP (Rick Kwan - Sun Intercon)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 43

In article <250@dg.dg.com> uunet!dg!rec (Robert Cousins) writes:
>One mistake which will go down in history is that Motorola chose
>to pitch the 6809 over the 68k to IBM.  This whole slice of
>computer history which will probably be viewed in the future as
>a turning point which altered the entire industry forever would
>have been changed had any one of a list of things been different:
>
>	(...interesting what-if list deleted...)

I have often wondered what would happen if IBM had chosen the 68000
instead of 8088/8086, and tailored a their own simple OS to run on
it?  I think IBM could very easily have produced such a thing.  They
certainly had the expertise.

Had they done their own proprietary 68000 PC, my guess
is that:
    1.	68000/UNIX would have found it very difficult to sell against
	a 68000/simple-IBM-OS.  (Not enough perceived product
	differentiation.)
    2.	The companies producing 68000/UNIX boxes would have been a
	trickle, instead of the hoard that arose.
    3.	The Intel 80x86 architecture would have no strong supporters;
	in fact, there may not have been an 80286.
    4.	There would be no signficant "open systems" voice.
    5.	Start-ups like Apollo or Sun Microsystems would not have
	arisen.
    6.	Apple would not have a Macintosh-like machine.
    7.	Other 68000-based systems such as those from Amiga and
	Atari would not have existed either.
    8.	There would have been no perceived workstation vs. high-end
	PC war.
    9.	I would be working for a different company in a different
	industry (but probably still banging a keyboard).  (Perhaps
	I'd be running a variant of TSO on OS/MVT on a PC ;-)

Thanks, IBM, for my latest job opportunities.

	Rick Kwan
	Sun Microsystems - Intercontinental Operations
	kenobi@sun.com

"Travellin' through hyperspace ain't like dustin' crops, boy."
					--Han Solo