Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!dg!mpogue
From: mpogue@dg.dg.com (Mike Pogue)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: IBM RISC
Message-ID: <273@dg.dg.com>
Date: 20 Feb 90 14:45:31 GMT
References: <8064@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <9327@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: uunet!dg!mpogue (Mike Pogue)
Organization: Data General, Westboro, MA.
Lines: 44

In article <9327@portia.Stanford.EDU> underdog@portia.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:
>Are we going to see a replay of the Apple II vs. IBM pc situation in
>the early 80s?  

	
  Certainly the IBM announcement is interesting and challenging from a number of 
perspectives.  However, there are a few things different here:

	1) The UNIX workstation market is much more OPEN (sorry to use the buzzword)
		than the PC market of the early 80's.
	2) Software that is ported to the IBM machine can easily be ported to 
		other machines (MIPS, SPARC, 88K).

  I think these factors are worrying IBM folks, because as has been stated in the trade
mags, IBM customers may be buying the AS/400 stuff now, but their NEXT purchase may
very well be the 6000 series.

  Once this happens, IBM software vendors will have a lot of incentive to move their
IBM-locked programs to the 6000.  From there to making the software available on other
platforms (MIPS, SPARC, 88K) is a short step.

  Pretty soon, IBM customers will have a CHOICE of vendor HW platforms for running 
their software.  (Oh my God!)

  IBM can do a few things to try to stop this:

	1) Buy into software companies to stop this from happening.  IBM is
		already buying small but significant portions of software companies
		all over the place.  They would CERTAINLY have some say as to whether
		the software gets ported to non-IBM machines.
	2) Encourage software developers to use IBM-specific features.  IBM is also 
		already doing this, by encouraging people to use NextStep (instead of
		Motif), and by adding special features to AIX.  Unfortunately, software
		is comparatively easy to clone, and software vendors in the UNIX world 
		tend to stay away from proprietaryness, even if it is IBM.

  So, it sounds to me like IBM is trying real hard for market share here, and they are hoping
that their mainstay in the commercial world won't be affected too much.  Time will tell how
successful they are!

Mike Pogue
Data General 

I speak for myself, not for my employer....