From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FROM,HTML_MESSAGE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 14670 invoked from network); 26 Jan 2023 13:27:33 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 26 Jan 2023 13:27:33 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A050C4247A; Thu, 26 Jan 2023 23:26:59 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-oa1-f43.google.com (mail-oa1-f43.google.com [209.85.160.43]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B46D84246F for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2023 23:26:54 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-oa1-f43.google.com with SMTP id 586e51a60fabf-1442977d77dso2326679fac.6 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2023 05:26:54 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=dhYfnd8YSDYHhwOjg79zJUon5koZrmk3rPW9yiqQqGE=; b=NHbz2g5xBpnIIjjs6WRjG0jYaYCIJtbIJ/4h40wxaET03iOJZ/Xszokbg+BPBCoGUq KtwXk0W/1FJ5hIVGyvXP1OjAzAw3W2xZ7EOGqErsa42ak44AEYStl24KRUZPq5DJha9v aB2mH+k9qWAtvHgezBQc8405jItofFoxjLwyXMOS32ae1upNV99oaBU6ErpKnsdaEpKs faXJIOry/2w14HmG7PejLVZyUbEqUZFlMBDehh7spl3Aers91V70aLVph15Tui41swoQ 6TnfU7dYMJsCXMsze47S9GFKruOpEfOPd65oPryXibnYefdlGZqMCRyInO/QCQXK0pax 8dHg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id :reply-to; bh=dhYfnd8YSDYHhwOjg79zJUon5koZrmk3rPW9yiqQqGE=; b=n42yxckeDloUVgRNtjjEFrPwGybLyNTmj5mt5bEGdADBxUtgG22iNXGpLPeVq0+eGs CCRLfMh4t3pJ8LGBsOKzXYw8GLWK9iBqEpqNMLak1eUfI9c47OfD2MMVEEjo2zJR7QhU PyGyr/bYhx4Ql73TbSFsCWWRsGu0wpk4G4CpbGSSOUOJTOhe4FY3lPPMr2jtPU/iI2tx 7OyaxTj9atN8D1nTd8JSz2FFUs9JMyF5aZ3P8UdICwDZvY0SAkQT73MFfpzni7N6pPGR 06JZ3fsrNPl3kSUCrkZwpVYGILR5kpHYM87zgk12XOUmNIOOBldzioXumXDdsPdKnndl 8utQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AO0yUKXslGb/3cw5LShIa+htVct8rxNlpBRwFRZPF7vEzt9ckgTAD3Dz TB9ZzyPuU06o4g6am9AoMWgY9g0aNTqHZaL3uDzXZ28v X-Google-Smtp-Source: AK7set+dbA7Gk8Lqv2ZsXTOKxB2PUfbc9PPa6uPlGfgJ2D6YyQDriR2TzTrH20Iu+R+b9ROJygecy9lU4+asijJ3dKM= X-Received: by 2002:a05:6870:e2d4:b0:163:4ef8:dc1a with SMTP id w20-20020a056870e2d400b001634ef8dc1amr178709oad.175.1674739553777; Thu, 26 Jan 2023 05:25:53 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <23432965-52D6-4331-A4D8-8A6FDDB3F751@serissa.com> In-Reply-To: <23432965-52D6-4331-A4D8-8A6FDDB3F751@serissa.com> From: Marc Donner Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2023 08:25:43 -0500 Message-ID: To: Larry Stewart Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="00000000000031c02e05f32ab030" Message-ID-Hash: 5J5L35LSPDXMBATL5GOHHIX6NREIZXSC X-Message-ID-Hash: 5J5L35LSPDXMBATL5GOHHIX6NREIZXSC X-MailFrom: marc.donner@gmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: Joseph Holsten , tuhs@tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Earliest UNIX Workstations? List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: --00000000000031c02e05f32ab030 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable PERQ There was some talk of making Unix run on it, but POS (PERQ-OS) was written in Pascal and there was no reasonable way to port over all of the existing stuff without rewriting it all. I had a PERQ in my office for a while =E2= =80=A6 it put out so much heat and noise that my officemates lobbied to have me evicted. On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 8:01 PM Larry Stewart wrote: > There was quite a lot of early activity of course! > Essentially all of computer science academia was aware of the Xerox Alto, > although it wasn't a commercial product and wasn't Unix. > > Jim Morris left PARC and went off to CMU and began talking up the idea of > the "3M" workstation. One MIPs, One Megabyte of RAM, and One Million > Pixels. > > One of the early commercial attempts was the Three Rivers PERC (or PERQ?) > from the Pittsburgh startup. There were Unix adjacent systems as well, > such as Apollo Domain. > > Of course then Sun got started, and MIPS, and the IBM RT and VaxStations > so by the mid '80s it was quite crowded. > > There is a whole other arc about the graphics workstations, with SGI, > Ardent, Stellar, Stardent, and so on. > > Also, before graphics became affordable, there were various clustered > character generator based systems like Convergent Technologies. > > -L > > On Jan 25, 2023, at 7:31 PM, Joseph Holsten > wrote: > > =EF=BB=BFIt seems like there are bountiful articles able the decline and = fall of > the UNIX workstation, but I=E2=80=99ve had a hard time finding narrative = about > workstations prior to the Stanford SUN workstation. > > > * was the SUN-1 the first commercially successful product? What are the > =E2=80=9Cit depends=E2=80=9D edge cases? > * were there common recipes for proto-workstations within academic or > industrial research? What did those look like, who was involved? > * What do I really mean by workstation? Ex.gr. If an installation had a > PDP-11 with a single terminal and operator, is it not a workstation? Is i= t > the integration of display into the system that differentiates? > > -- > Joseph Holsten > http://josephholsten.com > mailto:joseph@josephholsten.com > tel:+1-360-927-7234 <(360)%20927-7234> > > -- =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D nygeek.net mindthegapdialogs.com/home --00000000000031c02e05f32ab030 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
PERQ

T= here was some talk of making Unix run on it, but POS (PERQ-OS) was written = in Pascal and there was no reasonable way to port over all of the existing = stuff without rewriting it all.=C2=A0 I had a PERQ in my office for a while= =E2=80=A6 it put out so much heat and noise that my officemates lobbied to= have me evicted.

On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 8:01 PM Larry Stewart <stewart@serissa.com> wrote:
<= /div>
There was quite a lot of early activity of course!
Essentially all of computer science academia was aware of the Xerox Alto= , although it wasn't a commercial product and wasn't Unix.

Jim Morris left PARC and went off = to CMU and began talking up the idea of the "3M" workstation.=C2= =A0 One MIPs, One Megabyte of RAM, and One Million Pixels. =C2=A0

One of the early commercial attempt= s was the Three Rivers PERC (or PERQ?) from the Pittsburgh startup.=C2=A0 T= here were Unix adjacent systems as well, such as Apollo Domain.

Of course then Sun got started, and M= IPS, and the IBM RT and VaxStations so by the mid '80s it was quite cro= wded.

There is a whole oth= er arc about the graphics workstations, with SGI, Ardent, Stellar, Stardent= , and so on.

Also, before = graphics became affordable, there were various clustered character generato= r based systems like Convergent Technologies.

-L

= On Jan 25, 2023, at 7:31 PM, Joseph Holsten <joseph@josephholsten.com> wrote:<= br>
=EF=BB= =BFIt seems like there are bountiful articles able the decline and fall of = the UNIX workstation, but I=E2=80=99ve had a hard time finding narrative ab= out workstations prior to the Stanford SUN workstation.
<= /div>

=
* was the SUN-1 the first commercially successful product? What = are the =E2=80=9Cit depends=E2=80=9D edge cases?
* were there com= mon recipes for proto-workstations within academic or industrial research? = What did those look like, who was involved?
* What do I really me= an by workstation? Ex.gr. If an installation had a PDP-11 with a single ter= minal and operator, is it not a workstation? Is it the integration of displ= ay into the system that differentiates?=C2=A0

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