Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!cs!schweige From: schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: bah ha ha ha! Message-ID: <891@cs.nps.navy.mil> Date: 15 Feb 90 04:34:16 GMT References: <90042.132253GIAMPAL@AUVM.BITNET> <-1773786462@convex.convex.com> Reply-To: schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA Lines: 74 In article <-1773786462@convex.convex.com> swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) writes: >In article <90042.132253GIAMPAL@AUVM.BITNET> GIAMPAL@AUVM.BITNET writes: >> >>In article , >>portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) says: >>> >>>From the 2/6 San Francisco Chronicle, Business section, without >>>permission: >>>Apple Computer Inc.'s largest sale to the federal government could be >>>reversed in the wake of a General Accounting Office ruling that >>> ... (stuff deleted) >>>system did not adequately meet the Air Force's requirements for >>>capability called "multitasking" -- the ability for a PC to perform >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - does this mean the Amiga is about to >>get a massive boost in the federal government arena? Boy oh boy, if Mr. >>Copperman pushes the Amiga on this sale, phewie! That would be one heckuva >>push for the 'ole amy. >> I wonder what will happen.... >>--dominic >As near as I can tell from reading the article in EE Times, the GAO >recommended that the Air Force reopen negotiations with the original >bidders. The article did not list all bidders, but the bidders that >were mentioned did not include Commodore. In addition, the GAO >recommendation is not binding on the Air Force. > >The contract is for Unix workstations. Honeywell was the bidder that >attempted to provide Macs on the contract, running Apple's A/UX. Apparently >(not clear from the article) the requirement for "secure multitasking" >is met by A/UX, but not by the Mac OS. .... I don't believe the contract required the use of Unix. It does require multitasking. C3 Inc. bid the Zenith Data Systems Z-1000 multiprocessor workstation. I don't know if this runs Unix or not. Martin Marietta originated the protest to the award, which is what GAO ruled on. Martin Marietta bid Sun workstations. [...stuff deleted...] >In any case, if the Macs are being thrown out because of an auxillary OS >(one not required for the contract) then it sounds like a crock to me. [...stuff deleted...] It's my understanding that the Macs were thrown out because the packages proposed to meet certain required applications would run only under Mac OS and not under Unix, therefore could not multi-task. From the Feb 5 1990 issue of Federal Computer Week: ... "GAO found that Honeywell's bid violated the requirement for multi-tasking up to 10 programs. 'The specification did not envision that the overall requirement for multitasking could be frustrated by allowing an offeror to propose a class of software that does not permit multitasking,' GAO said." >--Steve >------------------------------------------------------------------------- > {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.COM Jeff Schweiger -- ******************************************************************************* Jeff Schweiger CompuServe: 74236,1645 Standard Disclaimer ARPAnet (Defense Data Network): schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil *******************************************************************************