tim@tslvax.UUCP (Timothy Beres) (06/18/86)
WARNING: I am not a happy person right now... A while back I posted a request for info concerning AT&T's new product for the 6300+. Back then, it was called OS Merge. It was recently announced (spring COMDEX, I believe) that it would be available under the name of SIMULTASK, and check your dealer or AT&T sales rep *please*. This product was recently asked about on the net by (?); it combines UN*X and DOS files under one filesystem and has the capability to run DOS as a process under UN*X, with but a keystroke to zip between the two. AT&T has had in print the features and capabilities of this product for some time now. I've been at one time or another led to believe in January, Feb, .... release dates. Of course when you call AT&T they offer know information concerning this product (I guess their literature department slipped one or two by their marketing dept.). They've changed the name of the product. They just do not appear to give any clear indication that they have the foggiest notion when or what this products future is. The coup de grace that finally skewered my faith in MA BELL is this: My dealer (Doug from Micro Mart, Altamonte Springs, FL) has bent over backward to find me any information on this product's viability and availability, that I could not get on the net. We have gone round and round trying to make sense of AT&T's mktg plan. Doug tells me that Micro Mart corporate has received this wonderful product. AT&T had led them to believe that they could sell it forthwith. HAH! They now say July 1 at the earliest (Ok, they have distributed non-announcement announcements way, way back; they've announced the product recently; they've announced the release of the product; they've de-released the release; OH BUT I CANT WAIT FOR JULY 1 AND THE NEXT ANNOUNCEMENT). To top it off, I've heard that their support staff could not get the thing working for the people who are supposed to sell the thing; that the 6300+ isn't as fully compatible with the IBM AT as originally thought; and, of course, there are all those articles out there in the popular literature that label AT&T's marketing strategy as BONEHEADED. There. I've said my piece. Go buy a clone running SCO Xenix and partition your hard disk. If any of you can enlighten me differently, I may be persuaded to take another look, in, oh, 6 months. DISCLAIMER: I just want to run a decent low cost UN*X system, with a little Auto-CAD thrown in. And the usual disclaimers apply. ________________________________________________________________________ | WHO: Tim Beres | | UUCP: ...!ihnp4!{duke, akgua}!ucf-cs!tslvax!tim | | PHONE: 305/788-9100 | | SURFACE: Tech-Source Labs #division of Ciprico, Inc. | | 1175 Spring Centre South Suite D | | Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714 | |________________________________________________________________________|
hsc@mtuxo.UUCP (h.cohen) (06/20/86)
I am sorry that Tim Beres, who wants a product like Simul-Task, had so much trouble getting it. Simul-Task was on-shelf in the warehouse on May 2, right after we showed it at COMDEX. The red tape and horrible luck we encountered in getting the informatio nto the sales channels and turning on the order system are probably of interest only to my psychiatrist; if you want a rough idea, go read "Catch 22." UNIX/Simul-Task on the PC6300 PLUS really is orderable now, though, and it really is nice. Since I did not post my last announcement to net.micro or net.unix, I am taking the liberty of reproducing it here: UNIX SVR2 for the PC6300 PLUS is now orderable and is on one-week delivery interval. It includes full SVR2 functionality, plus a nice user interface, an excellent editior/wordprocessor, and the Simul-Task feature that lets you install MS-DOS 3.1 under the UNIX filesystem and run MS-DOS software as a UNIX process. In addition to the standard 20MB hard disk + 1.2MB floppy configuration, you need a 512KB chip set (AT&T order code 37561, $195 list price) to bring the motherboard up to a full 1MB of memory. The order code for UNIX is 1111-UX1. The list price is $195. The order code for the UNIX Development Set (C compiler, assembler, lint, make, lex, and so on) is 1111-DT1, list price $395. Other goodies include INFORMIX 1111-RDB $895 C-ISAM 1111-ISM $245 RM/COBOL 1111-CB2 $595 RM/COBOL runtime 1111-CBR $195 RM/FORTRAN 1111-F04 $795 CrystalWriter PLUS 1112-CWP $695 Professional Writer's Package 1112-PWP $595 File-It 1112-FIT $295 UltraCalc 1112-UCL $395 UNIX User Reference Man 1610-223 $ 60 Integrated Software Development Guide 1610-224 $ 60 Heavy users may also want a memory board (37555, $795 list) which comes with 0.5MB and is expandable to 2.0MB. Each 0.5MB on the board can be switch-set to be either serial memory (addressable by UNIX) or paged memory (addressable by Lotus 123, Deskview, and some other MS-DOS applications). Advanced telephone manager and Email software will be out in July, plus some surprising applications software. I will post more then. Harvey S. Cohen, AT&T-IS PC6300 PLUS product mgmt. mtuxo!hsc
dan@prairie.UUCP (Daniel M. Frank) (06/20/86)
My favorite AT&T commercial is the one they had on about a year ago,
in which a teenager is helping his Dad bring a box with the Deathstar
emblem into their living room.
Dad: "What's this, son?"
Son: "It's the future, Dad!"
They seem to be selling a lot of that future thing.
--
Dan Frank
{seismo, topaz, harvard, ihnp4}uwvax!geowhiz!netzer!prairie!dan
-or- dan@caseus.wisc.edu