dkelly@npiatl.UUCP (Dwight Kelly) (02/06/90)
Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what is being introduced? Invite read: Unix users, you are invited to the launch of a very significant IBM product. February 15, 1990. Dwight Kelly Network Publications, Inc. Atlanta, GA
jason@cs.utexas.edu (Jason Martin Levitt) (02/06/90)
In article <749@npiatl.UUCP> dkelly@npiatl.UUCP (Dwight Kelly) writes: >Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what >is being introduced? > >Invite read: > > Unix users, you are invited to the launch of a very significant > IBM product. February 15, 1990. > > If you ask an IBM employee, they will say: "I don't know what you're talking about." If you ask someone who has one of the products, they will say: "I can't tell you anything unless you've signed a non-disclosure agreement with IBM." If you ask me, I'll say: "The Sparcstation I and the DECstation 3100 are very significant products." ---Jason ----- Jason Martin Levitt P.O. Box 49860 Austin, Texas 78765 (512) 459-0055 Internet : jason@cs.utexas.edu | I UUCP : ...cs.utexas.edu!hackbox!jason | put the BIX : jlevitt | chic in geek.
gupta@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (02/06/90)
> Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what > is being introduced? My guess is that its their long overdue RIOS workstations... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: rohit-gupta@uiuc.edu PHONEnet: 217 356 7959 UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!ux1!gupta BITnet: GUPTA@UIUCVMD ******************************* "E Pluribus UNIX" *****************************
john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) (02/06/90)
In article <749@npiatl.UUCP> dkelly@npiatl.UUCP (Dwight Kelly) writes: > Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what > is being introduced? > Unix users, you are invited to the launch of a very significant > IBM product. February 15, 1990. I wouldn't be too surprised if this was the new PC-RT series that we have been hearing rumors about for the last 2 years. If you go, please post a summary. If you want a preview, there is an article in PC Week this week. -john- -- =============================================================================== John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john =============================================================================== <*** *** Disclaimer: Its my machine, so I can say whatever I want. *** ***>
kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) (02/06/90)
dkelly@npiatl.UUCP (Dwight Kelly) writes: >Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what >is being introduced? >Invite read: > Unix users, you are invited to the launch of a very significant > IBM product. February 15, 1990. Based on what I read in the industry rags, it is probably the RIOS machine (i.e. the RT follow-on). I am HOPING that they will also announce that AIX PS/2 1.2 is available. Release 1.1 is up to 13 update diskettes, and applying the updates trashed my base OS (can you spell FRUSTRATION... sure you can...) -- Kevin Kleinfelter @ Management Science America, Inc (404) 239-2347 gatech!nanovx!msa3b!kevin
friedl@mtndew.UUCP (Steve Friedl) (02/08/90)
dkelly@npiatl.UUCP (Dwight Kelly) writes: >Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what >is being introduced? A friend of mine got to see an IBM internal presentation about their new workstation (the POWER series, some kind of stupid acryonym), and the Big Product Announcement is supposed to be in the next week or so. He and I really like to bash IBM, but my friend could not contain himself here -- he was totally impressed with the system. This is what I recall from the conversation. IBM did extensive studies of what kinds of instructions were needed by typical workstation, and they built a superscaler RISC to match it. Very high integer and floating point performance, four or five instructions can execute at one time. They use the MCA architecture, but they have some kind of mods that kick up the speed from 40mbyte/second up to over 200mbyte/second (and maybe even higher, I don't recall) depending on the model. As much as they hate following standards, they apparently did so by and large across the board. NFS, AFS, and TCP/IP come to mind. UNIX is supposed to be hybrid of Sys V and Berkeley, with a main focus on Posix compliance. 20000 pages of "great" documentation on CD ROM, online manuals, hundreds of hours of UNIX tutorials, etc. They already have in the ballpark of a hundred applications ported (including Frame, for instance) and have signed up many more to be delivered by the end of the year. They are setting up porting centers with these machines plus Suns and DECs and such, plus smart staff to help with the porting. Oh, they also admitted explicitly that they blew it totally on the RT and that if they do it again, nobody will take them seriously in this market. My friend says that they have not made the same mistake again. It looks like a really hot system. Steve -- Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY / Software Consultant / Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy +1 714 544 6561 voice / friedl@vsi.com / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl "Winning the Balridge Quality Award is as easy as falling off a horse." - me
kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) (02/08/90)
In article <335@mtndew.UUCP> friedl@mtndew.UUCP (Steve Friedl) writes: >dkelly@npiatl.UUCP (Dwight Kelly) writes: >>Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what >IBM did extensive studies of what kinds of instructions were >needed by typical workstation, and they built a superscaler RISC >to match it. Very high integer and floating point performance, >four or five instructions can execute at one time. What an original idea, only Intel (486), Motorola (68040), and a whole plethora of other companies have done the same. Can it truly be that the company that once said there that there would be no market for photo- copiers as long as there was carbon paper, is actually getting in on the band wagon. Nah, I doubt it! But then, what do I know? Chewey, get us outta here! kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propeller Labs Kaleb Keithley
reggie@dinsdale.nm.paradyne.com (George W. Leach) (02/08/90)
In article <2772@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.UUCP (Kaleb Keithley) writes: >In article <335@mtndew.UUCP> friedl@mtndew.UUCP (Steve Friedl) writes: >>dkelly@npiatl.UUCP (Dwight Kelly) writes: >>>Just got an invitation to an IBM product announcement. Anyone know what >>IBM did extensive studies of what kinds of instructions were >>needed by typical workstation, and they built a superscaler RISC >>to match it. Very high integer and floating point performance, >>four or five instructions can execute at one time. >What an original idea, only Intel (486), Motorola (68040), and a whole >plethora of other companies have done the same. Can it truly be that >the company that once said there that there would be no market for photo- >copiers as long as there was carbon paper, is actually getting in on the >band wagon. Actually, IBM was one of the pioneers of the RISC movement. with the development of the 801 in the 70's. For details check out the following reference: George Radin, "The 801 Minicomputer", Proceedings Symposium on Architectural Support for Programming languages and Operating Systems, March 1-3, 1982, Palo Alto, California, pp. 39-47. - or - IBM Journal of Research and Development, 27 (3), May 1983, pp. 237-246. also see Robert Berhhard, "More Hardware Means Less Software", IEEE Spectrum, 18(12), December 1981, pp. 30-37. George George W. Leach AT&T Paradyne (uunet|att)!pdn!reggie Mail stop LG-133 Phone: 1-813-530-2376 P.O. Box 2826 FAX: 1-813-530-8224 Largo, FL 34649-2826 USA
rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) (02/09/90)
friedl@mtndew.UUCP (Steve Friedl) writes: [...assorted stuff about new product deleted...] > ...20000 pages of "great" documentation > on CD ROM,... Beg pardon? This is self contradictory...if it's "great", there won't be 20000 pages of it; if it's 20000 pages, it won't be great. I hope this was a typo! -- Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com uucp: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd (303)449-2870 ...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."
lbert359@pallas.athenanet.com (Lee Bertagnolli) (02/10/90)
IBM may have coined the term (RISC), but they certainly did not have the first commercially available systems. As far back as 1972(!) there was the Burroughs B1000 series, which was not a RISC machine by the current definition, but it had only 26 instructions. There was at least one other system on the market before that. To say IBM invented RISC is like saying IBM invented virtual memory.
buck@siswat.UUCP (A. Lester Buck) (02/12/90)
In article <289@pallas.athenanet.com>, lbert359@pallas.athenanet.com (Lee Bertagnolli) writes: > There was at least one other > system on the market before that. > > To say IBM invented RISC is like saying IBM invented virtual memory. I'm no IBM fan, but please don't confuse IBM products with IBM inventions. Lots of terrific ideas are trapped inside IBM laboratories because of marketing decisions. Just ask the RISC manufacturers whether they have patent cross-licensing with Burroughs or IBM... -- A. Lester Buck buck@siswat.lonestar.org ...!texbell!moray!siswat!buck
gupta@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (02/13/90)
In today's Wall Street Journal there is an article about the new IBM machines (in the Marketplace section). It says that it is a fast machine and that IBM will be selling it for around $15K. Apparently the name is RS/6000 (continuing the long IBM tradition of user-friendly names :-). BTW, it also said that IBM invented RISC. Rohit
bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) (02/13/90)
In article <22000005@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> gupta@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes: >In today's Wall Street Journal there is an article about the new >IBM machines (in the Marketplace section). It says that it is >a fast machine and that IBM will be selling it for around $15K. Apparently >the name is RS/6000 (continuing the long IBM tradition of ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >user-friendly names :-). Interesting choice for a name. Wonder if they realize Radio Shack had a series with that number. I can just see it now. "Hey I got a new RS 6000". "That old Radio Shack Dog! Why not get a good machine!" Actually the RS line started with the Radio Shack 16, and it became the Tandy 6000, but a lot of people still say they have a Radio Shack 6000! -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP
brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu (02/15/90)
In article <289@pallas.athenanet.com> lbert359@pallas.UUCP (Lee Bertagnolli) writes:
[ B1000 series were basically RISC: only 26 instructions ]
Let's add the CDC 6600 to this list.
---Danphil@aimt.UU.NET (Phil Gustafson) (02/21/90)
In article <289@pallas.athenanet.com>, lbert359@pallas.athenanet.com (Lee Bertagnolli) writes: > IBM may have coined the term (RISC), but they certainly did not have the > first commercially available systems. As far back as 1972(!) there was > the Burroughs B1000 series.. Another RISCish computer of the day was the Data General Nova. It had eight instructions, each modifiable with various skip and other conditions. It had a large number of general registers for the era -- four times as many as the then-competitive DEC processor. And _all_ arithmetic operations were register-to-register. All these characteristics are straight out of the RISC dogma book. -- Phil Gustafson, Graphics/UN*X Consultant {uunet,ames!coherent}!aimt!phil phil@aimt.uu.net 1550 Martin Ave, San Jose, Ca 95126