From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.7 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, HTML_MESSAGE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,MIME_QP_LONG_LINE,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id ce48d080 for ; Wed, 28 Aug 2019 20:24:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 4398B9BDDF; Thu, 29 Aug 2019 06:24:05 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F24719BD79; Thu, 29 Aug 2019 06:23:49 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id BADC09BD3C; Thu, 29 Aug 2019 06:23:47 +1000 (AEST) Received: from bagheera.alchemistowl.org (bagheera.alchemistowl.org [185.15.93.23]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CF3DD9BCD0 for ; Thu, 29 Aug 2019 06:23:46 +1000 (AEST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at bagheera.alchemistowl.org Received: from [10.4.4.206] (81.247.105.92.dynamic.wline.res.cust.swisscom.ch [92.105.247.81]) (authenticated bits=0) by bagheera.alchemistowl.org (8.16.0.29/8.16.0.29) with ESMTPSA id x7SKNeV2086326 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 28 Aug 2019 20:23:41 GMT Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-334DCAE6-BB19-49FE-9253-1C87DCD6EE86 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Arrigo Triulzi Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0) Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2019 22:23:40 +0200 Message-Id: References: In-Reply-To: To: Clem Cole X-Mailer: iPad Mail (17A5572a) Subject: Re: [TUHS] If not Linux, then what? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: "tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org" Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" --Apple-Mail-334DCAE6-BB19-49FE-9253-1C87DCD6EE86 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 28 Aug 2019, at 20:57, Clem Cole wrote: >> On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 1:32 PM Larry McVoy wrote: >> Perhaps Clem can shed some light on why DEC did a MIPS machine?=20 > I did not work for DEC at the time and obviously, I was not in the room, s= o this is what I can say I picked up. Supnik would be a better person to as= k. That said, some things I do know about the time/and behinds the scene. As a customer, back in 1992 in the UK: DEC sold us Ultrix DECstations runnin= g on the R3000, the R4000 upgrade and then told us the Alpha upgrade would b= e for peanuts. So we ran this research cluster with one Alpha 3000/600 and t= wo Alpha 3000/400 running OSF/1 T1.0 and the DECstations on Ultrix, compilin= g everything on Ultrix and "mx"ing into OSF/1 until, with OSF/1 2.0 the "upg= rades" showed up and we ended up with a beautiful Alpha cluster which was th= e envy of the college. They then spread like wildfire when engineering depts= tried their code on our cluster=E2=80=A6 For us the MIPS DECstations were literally placeholders for the Alphas we'd b= e getting with the trade-in! One of the DECstations is still with me because= it turned out that DEC did not want back the huge stack of DECstations we h= ad piled up for the trade-in! Arrigo --Apple-Mail-334DCAE6-BB19-49FE-9253-1C87DCD6EE86 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
On 28 Aug 2019, at 20:57, C= lem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 1:32 PM Larry McVoy <lm@mcvoy.com> wrote:
Perhaps Clem can shed some light on why DEC did= a MIPS machine? 
I did not work for DEC at the= time and obviously, I was not in the room, so this is what I can say I pick= ed up.  Supnik would be a better person to ask.  That said, some things I do kno= w about the time/and behinds the scene.

As a customer, back in 1992 in the UK: DEC sold us Ult= rix DECstations running on the R3000, the R4000 upgrade and then told us the= Alpha upgrade would be for peanuts. So we ran this research cluster with on= e Alpha 3000/600 and two Alpha 3000/400 running OSF/1 T1.0 and the DECstatio= ns on Ultrix, compiling everything on Ultrix and "mx"ing into OSF/1 until, w= ith OSF/1 2.0 the "upgrades" showed up and we ended up with a beautiful Alph= a cluster which was the envy of the college. They then spread like wildfire w= hen engineering depts tried their code on our cluster=E2=80=A6

For us the MIPS DECstations were literally placeholders for the Alphas= we'd be getting with the trade-in! One of the DECstations is still with me b= ecause it turned out that DEC did not want back the huge stack of DECstation= s we had piled up for the trade-in!

Arrigo
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