burton@parcvax.UUCP (09/01/87)
An earlier article mentioned the Fortune 32:16 as a good example of a 68000 machine that would have succeeded if it had been an open box. As an ex-Fortune System employee (is there any other kind?) I'd like to ad d my own opinions. The company had a "closed boxa" mentality because it was greedy. Open up the box, and the dealers (horrors!!!) could substitute their own option cards. But the reality was that our competitors could easily get such important peripherals as tape backup easily on the open market, because they used standard busses. We had no such device, and would have had to spend valuable development dollars (and lose time in the marketplace) to get tape. The company went further and kept the bus confidential. An outsider had to sign a non-disclosure to get the bus specs!!! And we didn't doo too many of those agreements. Too bad; the marketplace has shown it wants an open artchitecture on anything smaller than a big mainframe. One thing in Intel's favor. Motorola kept delaying the introduction of its floating point unit. Without the FPU, one spreadsheet user could tie up the entire 32:16 and make it effectivewly a single-user machine. Too bad. But history has shown that bad management will kill the best-designed product. Strictly my own opinions. -- Philip Burton burton@parcvax.COM ...!hplabs!parcvax!burton Xerox Corp. preferred path: burton.osbunorth@xerox.COM 408 737 4635 ... usual disclaimers apply ...