[net.lang.st80] ST80 68000 implementations

peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (02/15/84)

There are at least 4 implementations of Smalltalk virtual machines for the 68K
(Apple, Tektronix, Xerox, Berkeley) and 2 of them (Xerox, Tek) are supposed to
be quite fast.  You'd think someone somewhere could make a deal for one of
these implementations and sell 3rd party ST80 for a Lisa.  As it stands, it
appears that none of the 4 organizations will be selling to the end user.
- Berkeley doesn't want to, for obvious reasons, though they will be licensing
  their SUN implem'n to universities.
- Apple doesn't want to  (Lisa implem'n)
- Xerox has made it clear that all they want to do with ST right now is to
  write the books, license the image, and sell it for the 1100 machines.
  Their SUN implem'n is being sat on, it seems.
- Tek. doesn't have a machine to sell it for.  There's a picture of their
  experimental Magnolia workstation in the 3rd ST book, but like the Alto,
  it appears that it won't be sold as such (though I guess a Magnolia
  derivative is possible).

Wouldn't it be nice if Sun Microsystems bought the internal Xerox
implementation for the SUN?  (I have no information one way or the other
whether this has even been considered)

By the way, the 3rd ST80 book (The Interactive Programming Environment)
is a good introduction to a ST80 system, even if you don't have one present,
as it includes many many screen images and details of which buttons to
press and menu items to select.

peter rowley, U. Toronto