steve@wlbr.UUCP (Childress) (04/24/85)
...
...
Well, here are MY personal views on the AT&T UNIX-PC or PC7300 or
whatever they're calling it....
>>> The following are NOT necessarily the views of my employer... etc
I looked over the PC7300 for about two weeks. Config: 1MB RAM, 10MB disk,
one floppy, mouse, multiplan, wordprocessor X, GSS windows.
This machine is competing with the IBM-PC/AT ... not with the
micros using R232 dumb terminals.
BOTTOM LINE: For the price ($5-7Kea >>LIST<< for a practical machine)
I think it is the most remarkable machine I've yet seen. I had a
Lisa 2 for a week and was really dissapointed in it -- to the extent that
I was eager to return it to the loaner. And as for the MAC mode on the
Lisa -- phooey -- though the graphics routines are nice, they are
using a hard (impossible) to learn interface conforming to no standard --
and because Apple has yet to write the DOS (!), the MAC/LISA/XMAC are,
in my opinon, er, ah, er, ah, "of limited professional utility". But
lots of sign-painters are now looking for new jobs.
So for the price (and AT&T is heavily discounting (will retailers?))
I believe the thing far and away has the best price/performance to date.
Now for some detailia:
Highlights:
o Unix sys 5.0 with C/T's DEMAND PAGING extensions
o 10MHz 68010 with DEMAND PAGING VIRTUAL MEMORY (at this price?)
o GSS Windows package
o Approx 760 X 340 monochrome (green) bit mapped display
o Drawing speed very acceptable -- comparable to MAC
o Built in 300/1200 baud modem
o Standard RS232 and Centronics ports
o Advertised as a 1-3 user system. I suggest 2 max, if related work
o Standard 512K memory using 64K chips (THEY NEED 256K chips)
o 3 expansion card slots -- 1st one always used to get to 1MB
(don't try 1/2 meg!)
o Expansion slots are screwy bus -- AT&T promises to reveal
(IF THESE WERE IBM-PC or AT compatible slots, AT&T and C/T
would have an unquestionable winner. As is, they put it
right into a Catch-22 -- just like the Tandy 2000!)
o Fill up slots to go to 2MB. Maybe more w/256K chips? someday?
o DSDD floppy -- claimed 600KB (double track) -- TEAC
o Very fine windows package to enable even executives to use
the UNIX-PC's applications packages and to do routine
system administration, eg, backups, restores, user-enrolls, etc
o Nicely integrated spreadsheet (supercomp20) and choice of
vi or several fullup wordprocessors, formatters, nroff et al
o Microsoft BASIC and WORD
o DBASE III and Multiplan, I think
o Bunches of compilers, eg., the LPI lineup
o TELEPHONE manager, highlights:
o Hookup 2 phone lines and 1 phone instrument
o autodial w/mini-DBMS for dial-a-human; dial-a-cpu
o autoanswer and logins
o pickup phone and window pops into view; then dial-a-x
o mini-DBMS to track current and historical notes
o automatic call record keeping
and on and on....
Many of the more popular (ie., useful) MS-DOS programs available now
and more coming RSN...
Response time v.s., say, MAC? Program loading is 10X faster on PC7300
due to hard disk. new window is about the same. AH, BUT THE 7300 can
run lots of concurrent proceses in separate windows (if you like).
I did so, watching several pretty pictures gyrate and listening to the page
faults beating upon the disk!
Time to compile, assemble, link the 'printf("hello, world")' example was
around 30 seconds as compared to 10 or so on a Plexus P60 and a Vax 750.
That's a heck-of-a price/performance ratio, in my book!
Seriously, the concurrency enables the typical user to have "interrupted
work flow" (phone rings while editing, gotta call xyz NOW, recall the
memo without laborously abandoning the work at hand ... you know,
practical stuff that the MAC can't do. Nor can the MS-DOS'ers, without a
good, fast RAM-disk and a LOT of help from keycap macros.
Soooooooooooooooooooo....
The highly integrated keyboard and mouse and applications distinguish
this computer from the field. As does a virtual memory Unix on a
cheap machine.
I like it. It's really too bad about the expansion slots ... maybe they'll
offer lots of cards to preclude the Catch-22.
Steve Childress
Eaton IMS R&D Group MS 43
31717 La Tienda Drive
Westlake Village, CA 91360
(818) 889-2211 X2148
{trwrb, scgvaxd, ihnp4, voder, vortex} !wlbr!steve
or ...wlbr!wlbreng1!stevebrownc@utah-cs.UUCP (Eric C. Brown) (04/26/85)
In article <311@wlbr.UUCP> steve@wlbr.UUCP (Childress) writes: > o Unix sys 5.0 with C/T's DEMAND PAGING extensions > o 10MHz 68010 with DEMAND PAGING VIRTUAL MEMORY (at this price?) ... >Many of the more popular (ie., useful) MS-DOS programs available now >and more coming RSN... What I want to know is how AT&T is planning to make MS-DOS (808X) programs work on a machine with a completely different CPU. Is there an 8086 hiding in the bus somewhere, or are they planning to (Yecch) simulate an 8086 with the 68010???? Eric C. Brown brownc@utah-cs ...!seismo!utah-cs!brownc Execute Programs, not People!!!
tar@hou5g.UUCP (Tim Rock) (04/29/85)
I attended the announcement and saw several of the manufactures of MS-DOS software get introduced. These software vendors were present as a sign that the UNIX-PC would run their applications on a floppy they provided. I assume that they ported their applications software to the UNIX-PC. Tim Rock AT&T IS Holmdel NJ hou5g!tar
jmc@ptsfa.UUCP (Jerry Carlin) (04/29/85)
In article <3311@utah-cs.UUCP> brownc@utah-cs.UUCP (Eric C. Brown) writes: >In article <311@wlbr.UUCP> steve@wlbr.UUCP (Childress) writes: >... >>Many of the more popular (ie., useful) MS-DOS programs available now >>and more coming RSN... > >What I want to know is how AT&T is planning to make MS-DOS (808X) programs >work on a machine with a completely different CPU. Is there an 8086 hiding >in the bus somewhere, or are they planning to (Yecch) simulate an 8086 with >the 68010???? > I bet they looked for MSDOS programs written in C. -- voice=415 774-9576 uucp={ihnp4,ucbvax,cbosgd,decwrl,amd,fortune,zehntel}!dual!ptsfa!pbauae!jerry
john@novavax.UUCP (John Paul O'Brien) (05/02/85)
Our AT&T rep. said that AT&T is planning to come out with (prob. late summer) a board for the 7300 that will have ram, a 8086, and something else (a video mapper to make the 7300 screen look like an IBM color adap. to MS-DOS software) so that ALL IBM PC programs will run on the 7300. If they pull if off it will be one hell of a machine!
ksl@hou2e.UUCP (a hacker) (05/04/85)
In a recent computer article (Personal Computing, May 1985 -- JAZZ issue), it said that AT&T has a LIKELY chance of designing a MS-DOS expansion board. It did not verify that AT&T would definitely design the board, though. hou2e!ksl A happy owner of a 640K AT&T PC-6300 with color monitor
wrs@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Walter Smith) (05/05/85)
Um, could you guys move this discussion off net.micro.mac? It doesn't
really belong there.
--
Walter Smith, CS undergraduate, Carnegie-Mellon University
uucp: ...!seismo!cmu-cs-k!wrs ARPA: wrs@cmu-cs-k.ARPA
usps: Box 874; 5115 Margaret Morrison St.; Pittsburgh, PA 15213mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (05/08/85)
In article <387@cmu-cs-k.ARPA> wrs@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Walter Smith) writes: >Um, could you guys move this discussion off net.micro.mac? It doesn't >really belong there. It doesn't belong in net.micro.pc either. We just created net.micro.att for things like the UNIX PC. Please discuss it there. Mark