BROOKSHIR@TI-EG.CSNET ("JERRY R. BROOKSHIRE") (03/12/86)
The following extracts are from the Texas Instruments
internal electronic news system:
T LE;NEWS.TI.PRODUCTS.A.P01 SLE01
MON., MAR. 10, 1986 PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY SECTION A
TI, APOLLO(R) PROPOSE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ALLIANCE
AUSTIN, TEXAS - Texas Instruments and Apollo Computer Inc. today announced the
intention to enter into marketing, sales and development programs aimed at
bringing "next generation" artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the
engineering workstation market. A letter of intent signed by both companies now
lays the groundwork for the formation of a relationship that would bring TI's
leadership in AI technology to Apollo's industry-leading technical workstation.
As a first step in the proposed alliance, the companies plan to embark on a
cooperative development effort to integrate TI's Explorer(TM) LISP machine into
Apollo's DOMAIN(R) networking environment, allowing AI application developers
using Explorer to coexist on a network of Apollo workstation users. The
announcement comes shortly after Apollo's introduction of a new line of DOMAIN
workstation products.
"Apollo views AI, like graphics, as a technology that is key to a broad
range of technical application areas," said Roland Pampel, Apollo's senior vice
president of technology and marketing.
"When Apollo pioneered the workstation marketplace, the DOMAIN system's
integrated graphics capabilities provided a new dimension for application
developers," said Pampel. "We believe that AI will offer a similar leap in
application development capabilities and user productivity."
W. Joe Watson, vice president of TI's Data Systems Group, explained, "TI
has made substantial investments to build a strong AI technology base and
DSG's commercial AI products have rapidly achieved significant market success.
Teaming up with strong system vendors like Apollo will be a major step toward
expanding the use of our advanced technology in the technical computing market-
place."
Paul Armstrong, Apollo group manager of AI, said, "Many of our customers
and solution suppliers are actively seeking ways to exploit AI technology in a
variety of areas. We are pleased to work with TI in managing the transition to
a new generation of computing."
TI houses one of the largest AI research and development centers in the
world and is a leader in the internal application of AI technologies.
T LE;NEWS.TI.PRODUCTS.A.P03 SLE01
MON., MAR. 10, 1986 PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY SECTION B
TI AND SUN TO LINK AI AND UNIX WORKSTATIONS
AUSTIN, TEXAS - Texas Instruments and Sun Mircosystems(R) announced today that
TI will implement Sun Microsystem's Network File System (NFS) on its
Explorer(TM) artificial intelligence (AI) workstation. The NFS implementation
will allow transparent access to files on Sun's UNIX(TM)-based workstation and
TI's LISP-based Explorer system, providing users with a development environ-
ment that includes both AI and UNIX tools on the same network.
"NFS provides a solution to customers who want to add the Explorer's symbol-
ic processing capability to a network of Sun technical workstations running
under UNIX," said DSG vice president W. Joe Watson. "The combination of these
two complementary computers on a network provides a significant new offering
to industry."
Independent of machine type and operating system, NFS increases the useful-
ness of a local area network by allowing users to easily share information
between computers from different vendors.