nather@utastro.UUCP (10/18/83)
Quoted (verbatim) from issue #25 of "DTACK Grounded," the irreverent,
opinionated and thoroughly delightful publication of Digital Acoustics,
a (miniscule) firm in California specializing in 68000 add-in hardware
and computer world insight:
"There are a few chip designers and sellers at Intel (the rumor goes)
who would like to shoot Bill Gates right now. It seems the Microsoft
folks can't read, and as a result Intel has a large pile of 80188s it
can't ship. And Intel is redesigning the 80188 chip. Again.
"It's like this: the 8088 spec sheet reserves two of the 256 jump vector
addresses for future Intel use. Microsoft went ahead and used them in
the MS-DOS operating system anyway. The large pile of 80188s that Intel
can't ship use those two reserved vectors for a hardware purpose...
Unfortunately, there are about 12,000 application programs sitting on
computer retailer's shelves all over the country which call those vectors ...
Since Intel's documentation scrupulously documented that those two vectors
are reserved, they are (the rumor goes) refusing to take back the 80188s
[already] sold, unless (the rumor continues) the customer uses a blue logo
with three alphabetic characters.
"And now you know why Peanut hasn't been shipped yet, and what CPU Peanut
uses. We wonder how long it will take Intel to change the mask -- again --
and get the ship back into production -- again?"
You can subscribe to this newsletter for $15 for 10 issues from
DTACK GROUNDED
1415 E. McFadden, Ste. F
Santa Anna, Calif. 92705
but BE WARNED!!! The Faithful Newsletter Editor (FNE) *does* *not* *like*
Unix, C, Pascal, High Level Languages, and Lisa.
He *does* like
BASIC, assembly language, 68000s, and Commodore.
Ed Nather
ihnp4!kpno!utastro!nather