[TUHS] Re: Reaction to the 3B2 at Bell Labs

[alan@alanlee.org]

It would be nice to get more technical information on the 3B2s.  As late 
as 2016, I had reached out to Ed Eckart the archivist at Alcatel-Lucent 
and Seth had contacted William Caughlin at AT&T archives for more 
information.  Both seemed to indicate the systems were still in use at 
some customer sites and thus detailed technical info (eg. schematics, 
theory of operation docs, etc) could not be shared with the public.  But 
that sort of information was preserved and safe.

If anyone has contacts into either organization, a gentile nudge would 
be appreciated! :)

-Alan

On 2022-11-26 13:46, Seth Morabito wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I'm giving a presentation on the AT&T 3B2 at a local makerspace next
> month, and while I've been preparing the talk I became curious about
> an aspect that I don't know has been discussed elsewhere.
> 
> I'm well aware that the 3B2 was something of a market failure with not
> much penetration into the wider commercial UNIX space, but I'm very
> curious to know more about what the reaction was at Bell Labs. When
> AT&T entered the computer hardware market after the 1984 breakup, I
> get the impression that there wasn't very much interest in any of it
> at Bell Labs, is that true?
> 
> Can anyone recall what the general mood was regarding the 3B2 (and the
> 7300 and the 6300, I suppose!)
> 
> -Seth