root@ucbvax.UUCP (09/09/83)
From GEOFF5@SRI-CSL Fri Sep 9 11:33:38 1983
Visit to DECtown - Aug 31, 1983:
Yesterday 4 of us from Columbia, together with our local Rep., took the 8:00
shuttle to Boston for a day at "DECtown". This exhibit took place for 2 weeks
- the first for DEC sales people and this week for customers, prospects, etc.
It consisted of a large floor of hardware, software services, OEM's etc.
It reminded me of a combination DECUS DEC exhibit and the DEC section of a
trade fair (and it coincided, coincidentally enough, with IBM's PC Fair).
The most unusual thing was that there was a ton of unnounced products (hard
and soft) on the floor. My understanding is that the original plan was to
take a lot of this stuff off the floor after the DEC people saw it but before
the public could see it. The story was that Ken Olson himself announced last
Friday afternoon "Everything stays!"
The following list of things are what I noticed or was interested in. Prices
and delivery time are usually guesses or insinuations. Most of the DEC people
were very strict about releasing this type of information.
This information is NOT GUARANTEED BY ME OR ANYONE ELSE. ESPECIALLY DEC.
What I saw and heard:
New terminals:
--- ---------
3 new terminals were displayed and working. They all used pieces used in the
DEC PC series (Rainbow, Pro350, etc), e.g. keboards, monitors. Announcement
was supposed to be "soon" with deliveries commencing immediately after.
VT220 monochrome (white, green, or amber choice), with VT102 capabilities,
2 piece: keyboard and monitor. Monitor slightly larger than the PC
type monitor since the electronocs were inside the monitor. Printer
port standard. Price: "like a VT101".
VT240 monochrome (same choice of colors) with graphics: Regis (like VT125)
and Tektronix emulation. 3 piece: keyboard and monitor like PC,
electronics in a platform about 2" by 12" by 20" (bigger than
I expected but still quite small) Price "~$2300".
VT241 Color version of VT240. Monitor like the color monitor on the
Pro350 or Rainbow. Price "~$3300".
VAXstation:
----------
This had been previously announced but long in coming. I was much more
encouraged (as compared to last DECUS) as to speed, etc. I got the impression
that it really worked. It was used for real demos (i.e. interactively) as
opposed to canned film strip type demos. An OEM was using 2 for some real
applications demos. Delivery: by December.
(For those who don't know what it is: A large bit mapped high resolution
screen driven by a 68000 with multiple windows connected to independent
processes, multiple fonts, Tektronix and VT100 emulation, Mouse,
data-pad. To be the start of a family - i.e. color coming. Has a bunch
of VMS software support.)
LN01 laser printer:
------------------
A xerox 2700 in a DEC box. Was doing nice looking fonts (Mergenthaler
I think) and some graphics using font moseaics. Already announced.
I hear true bitmap graphics is comming.
PC's:
----
Rainbow 100+: New version of Rainbow - DEC's answer to the XT. 128k
memory (expandable to 892) and 10 MByte Winnie standard.
Price "very competitive". They seem to be pushing the Rainbow much
harder now than before.
Rainbow graphics: The graphics board will be delivered "in September".
(see next for comparison with IBM XT.) It will be driven by
a set of primitives called GSX86 (I think written by Digital
Research), not ready yet.
Rainbow software etc. seemed to have opened up with a lot more 3rd party
stuff. They ran LOTUS (spread sheet, pie-chart etc.) next to a color XT and
the Rainbow graphics looked noticably better than IBM's (I hear you can buy a
better graphics controller for the XT than IBM sells) and the keyboard design
seemed to help. 132 column mode helped for the spread sheet. They obviously
expoited the weaknesses of the XT which are no secret. One DECperson said the
Rainbow and XT had the same speed with LOTUS, another said the Rainbow was
faster. The 3-volume Rainbow Technical Manual was on display, containing the
various Intel, Zilog, and Digital Research manuals, printer manuals, BIOS
listings, and some sparse prose describing some internals.
Professional 350: All units in evidence were the 512K memory, 10MB Winchester
versions. No 325s in evidence. Real turn around here - open system!. They
had Version 7 UNIX running "native" (i.e. not under or next to P/OS, though
they hadn't made a final decision as to whether UNIX could exist by itself on
the system disk). They were also considering distributing 4.1 or 4.2 bsd
rather than V7. As yet, UNIX has no access to the bit map though they said
that was planned, and no communications other than over TTY (e.g. using
KERMIT, which they have running). When questioned about DECnet or Ethernet
support under UNIX, they said it was obviously desirable but wouldn't say
more. They'll announce UNIX for the Pro at the next DECUS.
The Professional "Tool Kit" is also ready (what other computer needs a "tool
kit"?), which allows you to compile, develop, etc. most stuff on the Pro in an
RSX/11M+ environment. Toolkit cost $295, and most compilers $495 more.
Mentioned were Pascal, Fortran, C ($550), PL/I(!), Dibol, and Cobol.
Assembler, task builder, EDT, PIP, etc, included with basic tool kit. I think
this is available now. They were running under P/OS 1.5, which they claim is
worlds better (read faster) than the initial release, and are
pre-field-testing 1.7, which is even faster than that, they say.
Videotex: a package was running on the Pro-350's to interpret videotex files
into color pictures. It looked very good on the Pro's monitor and seemed to
keep up with the 1200 baud text stream. This seemed like a winner. They also
had a Rainbow connected to a videotex interpreter box, and were composing
pictures using a videotex composition tablet. Videotex on color monitors was
everywhere, and the speed and quality were surprisingly good.
Ivis: Very flashy; mixture of video & audio from a video disk, computer
graphics, and text on the Pro-350 color screen. Intended for interactive
courses on how to assemble a car, etc., in which the student can follow
various paths through the course. A full rig runs about $15,000. The
catch is, you have to hire DEC or some other well-equipped firm to actually
compose & program the disk for you.
Generally the PC group seems to have come full circle in opening up their
systems. The introduction of UNIX and the toolkit on the Pro and the new
software on the Rainbow is welcome. I believe they have also opened up the
systems for foreign hardware but I don't know to what extent (Last
Computerword had 2 ads for 3rd party Rainbow memory and a Winchester).
Ethernet:
--------
2 devices:
DELNI Previously announed device to allow 8 tranceivers to plug
into 1 box. Saves a bunch of orange cable and tranceivers.
Great for machine room with multiple systems.
DECSA Unannounced terminal concentrator. Code named "Pluto". A PDP-11
in a box with 32 terminal ports and an Ethernet port. Runs
using DECnet terminal protocols supported by VMS (now) and
RSX ("soon"). Announcement "October", Price "$20k-$30k ??".
Price very uncertain. When asked about the DEC-20 NI, they all
shrugged their shoulders in ignorance; it wasn't clear whether it was
the NI they hadn't heard of, or the DEC-20.
The had Pro-350s on the Ethernet, talking DECnet to the VAXes, plugged in to
the DELNI. The network software worked but was not yet polished... They also
spoke of Ethernet support for the Rainbow some time in the future.
New VAXen:
---------
VAX 11/725: Repackaged 11/730 in a small box (about 18" cube)
and limited expansion capabilities. Aimed at office environment.
I think up to 8 users. Disk - unannounced RC25 (26 Mb removable
+ 26Mb Winnie) I think has a built in DSA controller.
Delivery ?, Price: "You'll be pleasantly surprised." They
had a couple of these with a VAXstation plugged in and were
running them as single user VAXen.
MicroVAX-1 A box the size of the Pro-350. It was not operating.
(I asked "does it work in house", answer: "Sure does."). Q-bus
machine. 25 Mbyte Winnie, 5 1/4 " floppies. Announcement:
"Several months", "Before end of Calendar '83", Price:
"Very competitive" (with 68000 systems?). Speed: "similar
to 730". Too bad we couldn't see if it really worked.
DEC-20:
------
They had a 2060 with HSC50, RA60 & RA81, and star coupler, and several
disgruntled DEC people hanging around it. Apparently the only reason for the
2060 was to show off the high degree of integration with the VAX -- the 20 and
the VAX could "play ball" together, by playing a baseball video game that
somehow employed the "Data Interchange Library" (a video game in Cobol?).
One piece of new DEC-20 hardware was an FCC compliant box to put it in.
Miscellaneous:
-------------
DECtalk The neatest thing there: a talking box with 8 different voices
which ran off ASCII text. Had a 68000 and a big dictionary
inside (small: 2" by 10" by 12"). Had a software interface
to DECmail so you could call in and it would read you your mail
over the phone. Great for the executive who has everything.
Actually quite impressive. Announcement: ?, Price "$5k -$10k"
(very uncertain). Where did they get this thing?
A coin operated gizmo to control your DECmate (or anything else) so
you could charge students (or whoever) for using the hardware.
Price: "~$400".
Lots of other stuff that I was less interested in.
I would reiterate: information contained in this memo is NOT GUARANTEED
BY ME OR ANYONE ELSE. ESPECIALLY DEC.
Rg
-------
-------minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (09/12/83)
Thanks for the nice comment about DECtalk. As to the question, "where did they get it?", the answer is simple: We developed it using a speech synthesizer developed by Dennis Klatt and letter to sound rules developed by Sheri Hunnicutt. The demo is still running, by the way: just call (617) 493-8255. Martin Minow decvax!minow