DSC08926.JPG
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19921110&slug=1523820
The Seattle Times
Tuesday, November 10, 1992
New Workstations Give Market A Boost
By Paul Andrews
The computer workstation market, expected to grow by nearly one-third in the coming year at a time when desktop personal computer sales are flat, got a big boost today from Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
In a nationwide satellite rollout, Sun unveiled a line of cheap but powerful workstations priced at $3,995 to $4,295, and a multiprocessing server, priced at $95,000, for networking computers together.
Meanwhile Digital Equipment introduced its first Alpha computers, and Hewlett-Packard announced its Series 700 workstations. PC chip-maker Intel is expected to join the fray with a new chip called the Pentium due out early next year.
A trade research company, Dataquest, estimates a 30-percent boost next year in the market for workstations, largely because organizations, government agencies and corporations will require more computing capacity than traditional desktop computers can deliver.
The new machines use an advanced chip technology called RISC, for Reduced Instruction Set Computing, which executes more complex commands faster. Workstations are used for computer-aided mathematics and design programs, high-end publishing, intensive database work and networked computing in an office environment.
The Sun system, called MicroSPARCclassic, represents the company's first foray into the pricing range of the personal-computer market. Sun hopes to capitalize on a growing number of personal-computer users hungry for greater power at affordable prices.
"There's a sizable market of individuals who will move up to workstations from desktop PCs," said Dataquest's Robert Corpuz, industry analyst in its PC group. The San Jose, Calif., research firm estimates an annual growth of 30.9 percent from 1992 to 1996 in the workstation market.
The Alpha chip is Digital's much-anticipated upgrade to its industry-standard VAX machines, which served much of academic and corporate America during the 1980s. Its initial Alpha AXP machines will range from an $18,000 workstation to an $800,000 mainframe computer.
Digital, which has encountered financial difficulties and layoffs, recently said it would split into separate business units, each with its own profit-and-loss accounting. It is expected to come out with a desktop Alpha costing in the $5,000 range.
Digital has the backing of Microsoft, which is adapting its next-generation operating system, Windows NT (for New Technology), to the Alpha chip. But the NT system is not expected to be available until late next year.
Hewlett-Packard's 700 series includes a desktop unit for $5,695 and a series of workstations costing up to nearly $60,000.
http://snarc.net/1219b/all_comp.jpg
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?41043-MARCH-s-UNIVAC&s=d4e9d1b18b18ed77a2427522ce3db0c0
Vintage Computer Forums
Thread: MARCH's UNIVAC
#1 January 19th, 2014, 08:08 PM
EvanK
MARCH's UNIVAC
For the past couple of years we in MARCH have been teasing people with the knowledge that we have a UNIVAC mainframe. It's a model 1219-B (1965 transistor system) used on Navy ships for things like radar and weapons system control.
This weekend we finally got around to taking some good pictures of it in our storage warehouse. The computer was a gift to us from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
I posted the pictures on my own domain.
Here are the five main racks: http://snarc.net/1219b/all_comp.jpg. Left to right: A/D converter (ignore the cable spools on its pallet), data recorder / IO hub, one of two identical tape drives, both CPUs. Here are three of the four IO consoles (paper tape below, TTY above): http://snarc.net/1219b/all_io.jpg. All are identical. The second tape drive and the fourth paper tape/TTY console are on on display in our museum.
Now for some close-up pictures.
1. A/D control panel: http://snarc.net/1219b/close_control.jpg.
1a. Details: http://snarc.net/1219b/close_control_detail.jpg
2. CPU: http://snarc.net/1219b/close_cpu.jpg (unfortunately both CPUs
are missing the top UNIVAC nameplates.)
3. Tape drive: http://snarc.net/1219b/close_tape.jpg
4. Data recorder and I/O hub: http://snarc.net/1219b/close_datarecorder_io.jpg
5. Paper tape / TTY console: http://snarc.net/1219b/close_io.jpg
No, we haven't tried to power it up ... it might be another few years before we get there, plus, we're missing the core memory, software, various important cables, and most of the manuals. We also don't have the electronic terminal or the line printer.
Still, it's one damn impressive-looking computer, and we're very proud to own it!
For context: each CPU weighs about 1,500 pounds. Each tape drive cabinet weighs about 1,000 pounds (you can see it has two drives inside the cabinet; each is a 7MB, 7-track tape.)
#3 January 20th, 2014, 01:17 PM
EvanK
It was used by them for development and testing purposes.
Realistically, I doubt we'll ever "get it working" in the traditional sense. But we might be able to make the CPU flash some lights or make the tapes spin or something. On the other hand, there is a UNISYS alumni group in the Philly area, and I'm scheduled to give a presentation to them this spring. Who knows what they might know! For now we are just relieved that the computer didn't get sold for scrap.
I mean ... we love our 8-bit micros and S-100 boxes and PDP-11s and such ... but, geez, it's a freaking UNIVAC. Merely seeing one is something most people will never get to do. We can show pictures and videos and talk until we're blue in the face, but seeing this in person is priceless. It's huge, it's gray, it's metal, it's got big honkin' tape drives and blinkenlights, it's full of transistors. Did I mention it's a UNIVAC!?
Yes, I am excited.
Thread: MARCH's UNIVAC
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/769
Cornell University Law School
LII / Legal Information Institute
U.S. Code › Title 47 › Chapter 6 › Subchapter VI › Part E › § 769
47 U.S. Code § 769 - Definitions
(15) Operating Agreement
The term “Operating Agreement” means—
(A) in the case of INTELSAT, the agreement, including its annex but excluding all titles of articles, opened for signature at Washington on August 20, 1971, by Governments or telecommunications entities designated by Governments in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19921215&slug=1530249
The Seattle Times
Tuesday, December 15, 1992
Feisty Chip Maker Prepares New Assault On Giant Rival -- Intel Fights Back In Courtrooms, Showrooms And TV Commercials
By Bart Ziegler
AP
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - This is a David vs. Goliath story, but with a twist. In this high-tech tale, the giant once cooperated with David, then later changed his mind.
David, not surprisingly, started slinging rocks. And Goliath has been fighting back ever since.
Goliath is Intel Corp., the nation's largest computer chip maker. Intel makes the microprocessor "brains" inside most IBM-type personal computers, which dominate the PC market.
David is rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD broke Intel's monopoly on its popular 386-model microprocessor in early 1991 and since has gobbled up almost three-quarters of that market.
Industry analysts called AMD's launch of its 386 clone one of the most successful product introductions ever in the semiconductor industry. AMD has sold more than 10 million of the chips so far, raking in revenue of $750 million.
Now, AMD is preparing another assault on its Silicon Valley neighbor. It plans to introduce a clone of Intel's more-advanced 486 microprocessor. The 486 is Intel's most profitable product and its sole remaining microprocessor monopoly.
Intel has launched an all-out effort to prevent that from happening. In courtrooms, computer showrooms and even TV commercials, it is waging a war to prevent AMD from duplicating its success with its 386 clone.
AMD recently was handed a significant setback. A federal judge, acting on an Intel lawsuit, ruled Dec. 2 that AMD doesn't have the
right to include in its 486 clones the special, copyrighted software contained in Intel's 486 chips.
The ruling means AMD will have to develop its own version of the software, called microcode. Microcode controls how a chip's circuits operate.
"It's a six-month setback," said W.J. "Jerry" Sanders III, AMD's fiesty chairman and chief executive.
AMD had planned to start selling a 486 clone this month. The delay will cost AMD about $100 million in revenue, he said.
Sanders vowed AMD will have a 486 on the market by next June, using microcode it is developing itself that doesn't infringe on Intel's copyright. Although it is a daunting task, most industry analysts expect AMD will succeed.
To create the microcode, AMD has set up a "clean room" operation. But instead of being free from dust or germs, as this term usually connotes, the operation and its workers must be untainted by knowledge of Intel's microcode.
Once AMD announces its chip, Intel still might sue to claim AMD's microcode is not free of Intel technology, said Michael Slater, editor of Microprocessor Report, an industry newsletter.
Because of the microcode setback, another chip maker most likely will beat AMD to the market with a 486-compatible microprocessor, Slater said. Cyrix Corp. already is testing such a chip that it derived independent of Intel technology. But Cyrix is much smaller than AMD and doesn't have a large, established customer base for Intel clone chips, he said.
The bitter, five-year battle between Intel and AMD is ironic considering the two once collaborated closely.
Starting in the late 1970s, Intel wanted to establish AMD as a second supplier of its chips, in part to soothe the fears of computer makers that Intel would not provide an adequate supply.
Intel licensed its microprocessor patents to AMD, as well as certain use of its microcode. AMD became a supplier of several of Intel's earlier microprocessors.
But the relationship fell apart after Intel introduced its 386 microprocesor. AMD argued it was entitled to the rights to make this chip as well under their alliance. Intel disagreed, saying AMD had not lived up to its side of the bargain.
Under the alliance, each company was supposed to design chips that the other also could make and sell. Intel claimed AMD did not produce acceptable chips for Intel.
Since their split, the companies have tangled in a bewildering array of lawsuits and arbitration hearings. Then, last year, AMD introduced its 386 clone.
Sanders views Intel's attempts to block AMD's use of Intel technology as a betrayal.
"A deal is a deal," he said in a recent interview at AMD's Sunnyvale headquarters. "The issue is, it's their intellectual property, we're the licensee."
Asked why Intel decided not to share the rights to the 386, Sanders replied, "greed - they wanted a monopoly."
Sanders is passionate about his battle with Intel. He gives the impression it is a personal crusade as much as a business imperative to fight the larger competitor, which has four times AMD's annual revenue.
The 56-year-old executive claims Intel has engaged in "Gestapo tactics" to block AMD's clones. Sanders even compared Andrew Grove, Intel's chief executive, to Saddam Hussein.
Grove, in an interview, admitted Intel fell short in its 386-model offerings, giving AMD a hole in the market to exploit.
AMD came up with variations on the 386, such as battery-saving versions for portable computers, that Intel didn't offer at first. Intel also wasn't able to meet demand for basic 386 chips, giving AMD another entree.
"We took our eyes off the defense against imitator offerings," Grove said.
But he vowed that won't happen with the 486. Intel has unleashed a stream of 486 variations, leaving little room for AMD to innovate once it comes out with a clone, he noted.
In addition, Intel sharply cut the price on many 486 models earlier this year, marking them down 58 percent on one day alone. The move was designed to push computer makers into using the 486 instead of continuing to make 386-based models. It also will make it harder for AMD to undercut Intel's prices once AMD enters the 486 market.
Another factor weighing against AMD, Grove said, is that it takes about five times as much capital spending to produce the more sophisticated 486 than the 386.
Meanwhile, Intel plans to roll out its next-generation microprocessor early next year.
The industry has been calling this chip the 586, but Intel recently dubbed it Pentium - Intel lost a lawsuit last year against AMD in which Intel claimed it owned a trademark on the "X86" designation for microprocessors.
Intel also launched an expensive campaign of TV commercials and national magazine ads aimed at prodding consumers into buying PCs containing genuine Intel microprocessors.
As to Sanders' allegation that Intel wants to be a monopoly, Intel had no comment.
AMD's success with its 386 clone represents a turnaround for the 23-year-old company. AMD endured several years of lean sales and financial losses. Part of the problem stemmed from its use of outdated chipmaking technology.
Today, AMD is a leader in advanced chipmaking. It is also the largest maker of one type of memory chip called EPROM, and the second-largest maker of another type called flash memory.
AMD reported a $168 million profit for the first nine months of 1992, up from $30.7 million the same period last year. Revenue rose to $1.1 billion from $860 million.
Industry analysts are upbeat about AMD despite its problems.
"AMD has emerged in the 1990s as a completely transformed company," said Mark Edelstone of Prudential Securities Inc.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930323&slug=1692003
The Seattle Times
Tuesday, March 23, 1993
Intel Introduces Powerful New Chip
AP
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - In a move designed to retain its dominance of the computer microprocessor field, Intel Corp. yesterday introduced its most powerful chip, Pentium.
The thumbnail-size chip has 3.1 million transistors and runs existing computer software applications about five times as fast as Intel's 486 processor, until now the leading-edge product, with 1.2 million transistors.
The company has been developing the Pentium for three years and spent several hundred million dollars on research, development and early production, said Chairman Andrew Grove.
Pentium-based computers are expected to be popular first with sophisticated users such as engineers, designers and those needing three-dimensional graphics applications. The chip will become widely accepted only as prices for Pentium-based computers drop over time, much as they have with the 486-based PCs, analysts said.
Computer suppliers have agreed to begin marketing new products based on Pentium in May, Intel said. About 70 percent of the world's estimated 100 million personal computers now use Intel microprocessors.
Pentium can perform 112 million instructions per second, five times the latest 486DX version and 300 times faster than Intel's 8088 processor in the original IBM PC.
Intel would not say how much it is charging computer makers, saying it will make that announcement in May. But analysts said they believe manufacturers initially will pay between $800 and $900 per processor.
Grove called the chip a technological marvel that will help fill the "insatiable" demand by software developers and the public for more powerful computer engines.
The development of workstations and PCs based on Pentium will coincide with the release later this year of sophisticated operating systems such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT and International Business Machines Corp.'s OS2. Its power will enable applications featuring full-motion video, 3-D modeling and speech recognition.
Intel said that its new chip would be 100 percent compatible with all existing software applications that run on Intel chips and that future versions with even higher performance and lower wattage requirements will be developed in coming months.
Intel's microprocessor division chief, Paul Otelleni, said the company planned to ship 10,000 Pentium processors during the second quarter of 1993, hundreds of thousands through the end of the year and 1 million in 1994.
"We really believe this processor will reshape the marketplace," Otelleni said.
Kimball Brown, vice president for microsystems for the market research company Info Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., said Intel is faced with early high production costs.
But Intel's strength so far has been its ability to stay at the front of the curve, analysts said.
"They basically raised the bar for all the world of microprocessors," said Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research of San Jose, Calif.
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F19.html
"The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"
Original Airdate in N.A.: 28-Apr-96
Bart: And then, he claimed he was the one who turned cats and dogs against each other. Why is he always making up those crazy stories?
Homer: Maybe it's time we put Grampa in a home.
Lisa: You already put him in a home.
Bart: Maybe it's time we put him in one where he can't get out.
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 2:10 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Tuesday 24 February 2015
