goldfish@CONCOUR.CS.CONCORDIA.CA (-- Paul Goldsmith) (11/06/90)
| From: John Thompson <thompson@pan.ssec.honeywell.com> | Subject: OSF/1 on DNxxxx | | I just got this forwarded to me from an HP/Apollo friend. As far as I'm | aware, it is official -- | | > OSF/1 on Domain/OS | > | > HP will offer OSF/1 on its Motorola 68040-based Domain/OS workstations. | > | > The decision was made this week, rolled out to the press at UNIX Expo in | > New York City, and is being communicated to the factory and field | > beginning with this message. In addition, a letter is going to the | > Domain/OS customer base. | > | > As a result of this decision, HP Apollo Series 3500, 3550 and 4500 | > personal workstations users, who choose to purchase a CPU board upgrade | > based on the Motorola 68040 microprocessor, can run the OSF/1 operating | > system on their upgraded CPU. | > | > "It became clear to us at the recent Apollo Domain Users Society | > meeting that migration to the OSF/1 operating system represents the | > strategic direction of choice for the majority of our Domain/OS | > workstation customers," said Mark Tolliver, WG Marketing Manager. "Also, | > in keeping with our commitment to preserve our customers' investments, we | > are pleased to announce that the Domain/OS customers who migrate to OSF/1 | > will be assured of protecting their hardware investment." | > | Sounds like, if you yell loud enough, almost anybody can be made to listen | (especially if you make sense!) Paul Krill of Unix Today! called me on Wednesday Oct 31 and read me that quote. below is an extract of what I sent him in response. "... call me back in two days if Hewlett Packard hasn't changed their mind; I'll believe it when I see a HP press release, read it in your magazine, or see it in the New York Times. Given Hewlett Packard's flip flopping on the whole Apollo line, I don't trust any unconfirmed announcement from them. As to their speculative decision not to provide an upgrade path for the DN 3000, the 3000 is based on the 68020, and is comparable to the Sun 3/50 which has also been discontinued. ..." I guess that makes it official; but do we really want to scream and yell to be treated responsibly by our hardware manufacturer? Later in my comments to Paul Krill, I said the following: ... At the time of the takeover, Apollo had a twenty percent market share and HP had an eleven percent market share. I would be interested in seeing their up-to-date market share numbers; and the current Apollo/HP split. Somehow, I think that lots of people would be very happy with those current numbers and none of them draw HP paycheques. ... -- Paul Goldsmith (goldfish) (514) 848-3031 <goldfish@concour.cs.concordia.ca> (Shirley Maclaine told me there would be LIFETIMES like this)
hanche@imf.unit.no (Harald Hanche-Olsen) (11/07/90)
In article <9011051236.aa24591@concour.cs.concordia.ca> goldfish@CONCOUR.CS.CONCORDIA.CA (-- Paul Goldsmith) writes: [...no he didn't write it -- its a quote of a quote...] | > OSF/1 on Domain/OS | > | > HP will offer OSF/1 on its Motorola 68040-based Domain/OS workstations. [...] | > As a result of this decision, HP Apollo Series 3500, 3550 and 4500 | > personal workstations users, who choose to purchase a CPU board upgrade | > based on the Motorola 68040 microprocessor, can run the OSF/1 operating | > system on their upgraded CPU. Hmm, I had been led to believe that OSF/1 would be for all HPollos, 68020 and up. But evidently they want to force us into the 68040 upgrade, which last time I looked, cost more than a whole new Sun SLC?? Someone please tell me I got this wrong... - Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no> Division of Mathematical Sciences The Norwegian Institute of Technology N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY
krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (11/07/90)
No, unfortunately you are correct. So far HP has stated the following in public: 1) OSF/1 will be ported first to the new PA-RISC desktop machines (remember their promise of a 40 MIPS upgrade to your HP 9000 400 series? I think this is it). They have been saying that these machines will be available Q2 91. 2) OSF/1 will then be ported to HP 9000 series 400 machines. The 68040 chips have been delayed yet again. Apparently the latest batch almost works right, but fails when certain code sequences are executed under field conditions (ie. marginal voltage/temperature). The best estimate I have now, is that 25 MHz '040 chips will not be in products until after Christmas, maybe longer. 3) HP stated at the ADUS conference that OSF/1 would not be ported to *any* DN series machines. I heard else where that it would not be ported to the HP 9000 series 300 (Motorola based pre-040) machines, but that these machines (or at least the later models) could be upgraded to series 400 models. Apparently at the recent Unix Expo, HP has revised its stand on DN machines -- DN5500's (DN3500/3550/4500 w/040 upgrade) will run OSF/1 eventually. I did not see a date for that, however. HP has stated that all DN machines prior to the DN3000 will be unsupported as of SR11.0 (Q4 91), and that a DCE/Motiff/OSF environment for DN3000/4000/3500/3550/4500, DN2500, and DN10000 will be included in a later release of SR11. SR11.2 was the release that I heard. If this is correct, it pushes the OSF look-alike into late 1992 (SR11.0 in late 1991, plus one or two point releases at 6 to 9 month intervals). It would seem kind of silly to support OSF/1 on the DN5500 but not on the 3500/4500. As has been pointed out previously, the main burden of support is not the CPU dependencies (which are relatively small between 68030/68040), but the large number of disk/tape/ graphics combinations that are available on the DN3xxx/4xxx series. On the other hand, a DN5500 means that HP gets $5000 income from DN4500 owners, $6000 income from DN3550 owners, and $7000 from DN3500 owners. In the meantime, Sun has not only announced the Sparcstation 2, but they are also shipping the 28 MIPS/4.2 Mflop box as of date of the announcement. -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)
chen@digital.sps.mot.com (Jinfu Chen) (11/08/90)
> >In the meantime, Sun has not only announced the Sparcstation 2, but they are also shipping >the 28 MIPS/4.2 Mflop box as of date of the announcement. Just a comment, OSF/1 won't run on Sun machines, unless miracle happens or something strikes Scott Neely (sp?).
mishkin@apollo.HP.COM (Nathaniel Mishkin) (11/08/90)
In article <4ddecd70.12c9a@digital.sps.mot.com>, chen@digital.sps.mot.com (Jinfu Chen) writes: >Just a comment, OSF/1 won't run on Sun machines, unless miracle happens >or something strikes Scott Neely (sp?). Neither will (if I'm to believe UNIX Today!) Sun's release of System V Release 4 (the merge of Sun OS and System V, I guess) EVER run on Sun-3's or Sun-386i's. Sun has done a fine job with their Sparcstations, but apparently HP isn't the only vendor not promising all software upgrades on all platforms. -- -- Nat Mishkin Cooperative Object Computing Operation Hewlett-Packard Company mishkin@apollo.hp.comPath: apollo.hp.com!mishkin