grr@unirot.UUCP (George Robbins) (12/28/85)
In article <2664@sunybcs.UUCP> ugjohna@gort.UUCP (John Arrasjid) writes: >I just read in infoworld that AT&T have signed a deal with Atari to release >the 520ST under their label with the UNIX V operating system. I have also >heard numerous rumours that this machine will come standard with monochrome, >20meg hard drive, 1 meg onboard, and will sell for $1000. Can any of you >people who work at AT&T either confirm or deny any or all of this info. If not, >how about a clue???? > >John Arrasjid SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science Well, this little rumor was enough to make any Amigoid shiver in their boots, so I decided that I had better try to find a copy of Infoworld and see what the article said. Well, it's on page 3 of the December 23 Issue, titled 'Atari, AT&T Reportedly in Deal for Low-End Unix Machines'. I would urge any interested persons to read it for themselves, since I don't want any Infoworld lawyers on my case. The article states the AT&T has agreed to purchase ST's for use as low- cost *TERMINALS*, not unix machines. I would be the first to admit that the ST would make a great cheap (color?) graphics terminal. The article also states that the ST's would be specially modified, I suspect by putting in special ROM's that leave out the OS functions and include, perhaps, BLIT terminal emulation. The article then resurrects some *OLD* Atari statements. One is about some unix based *applications* software that was supposedly going to be ported to the ST. The other relates Atari's announcement back at Comdex that they had purchased a Unix Source License. This doesn't mean that Atari is going to planning to port unix to the 520ST, it merely means that someone at Atari was able to justify the $$$ to buy a source license as part of their overall development effort. It also doesn't make them the only or even the first company to buy a System V license. I've previously rebutted some postings that you couldn't port unix to the ST, but that doesn't mean that Atari will do it, and this article does not announce any such thing. [ disclaimer: full time unix hacker / part time unofficial Commodore shill ] -- George Robbins uucp: ...!ihnp4!tapa!grr P.O. Box 177 ...!caip!unirot!grr Lincoln U, PA 19352 [Any ideas herein are not responsible for themselves!]