6 ms·

I'm not sure a different architecture would have mattered much. NeXT was trying to launch a Unix workstation right at the twilight of the age of Unix workstatio

I'm not sure a different architecture would have mattered much. NeXT was trying to launch a Unix workstation right at the twilight of the age of Unix workstations. They got clobbered using 68K, but then at around the same time Sun got clobbered using SPARC, DEC and Compaq got clobbered using Alpha, etc. Intel and Microsoft were busy eating the world, and one of the things that got gobbled up was the market segment NeXT was hoping to sell into.

trasz 7y ago
As Jobs mentioned, "We are going to be the last company that gets into the workstation market, or the first to fail". (He probably worded it better.)
flyinghamster 7y ago
I always wonder what personal computing might have been like had DEC not so greatly feared cannibalizing their mini/mainframe business. By the time they realized their mistake, it was already way too late. If Digital had played its cards differently, x86 might have been just a footnote. I found it very ironic that the biggest market for PDP-11-compatible micros was one not actually open to DEC: the Soviet Union.
- p_l 7y ago
  Soviet Union even made pocket computers that were electronically (not just software!) compatible with PDP-11 peripherals, if you dared to open the case and solder a connection. There are also rumours that around 1980, there was a design at Digital that could have led to a PDP-10 workstation, but Digital wanted to kill PDP-10.
  - pinewurst 7y ago
    It wasn't a rumor, it was the KT20 "Minnow". It was a workstation sans display. Given the memory addressing limits there were reasons why it was stillborn.
    - p_l 7y ago
      I assume Minnow didn't use Model B addressing, then? My understanding was that Minnow was important step towards miniaturization of the PDP-10 line, in tandem with Jupiter (IIRC?) which spearheaded high cpu speed initiative...
      - pinewurst 7y ago
        Apparently I’m wrong about the address limits but it’s running on a really narrow microarchitecture with very limited (probably deliberately) performance.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Another massive market for PDP-11's was McDonald's. They ran the cash registers in a lot of the restaurants. I knew a guy who earned a living rehabbing PDPs that had done service in McDonald's. I guess they weren't always located in the best place in the building because said he spent most of his time cleaning the dried soda off of circuit boards.
reaperducer 7y ago
A place I worked replaced its Suns with Dells. I couldn't believe they would do such a thing, since each Sun had to be replaced with three Dells to do the equivalent job. When I asked about it, the answer was simple: Three Dells were cheaper than one Sun.
pinewurst 7y ago
I wouldn't call another 5+ years of growth "right at the twilight". NeXT launched a 68030 box near simultaneously against the SS1 & DS3100. Both had faster follow-ons, goosed by the then-amazing HP PA machines (720/730). They (Sun, DEC, HP) raced each other til the Intel machines caught up. NeXT was never a player, despite Jobs attempt to define himself as the winner in the self-defined "academic workstation" segment.

trasz 7y ago

As Jobs mentioned, "We are going to be the last company that gets into the workstation market, or the first to fail". (He probably worded it better.)

flyinghamster 7y ago

I always wonder what personal computing might have been like had DEC not so greatly feared cannibalizing their mini/mainframe business. By the time they realized their mistake, it was already way too late. If Digital had played its cards differently, x86 might have been just a footnote. I found it very ironic that the biggest market for PDP-11-compatible micros was one not actually open to DEC: the Soviet Union.

p_l 7y ago
Soviet Union even made pocket computers that were electronically (not just software!) compatible with PDP-11 peripherals, if you dared to open the case and solder a connection. There are also rumours that around 1980, there was a design at Digital that could have led to a PDP-10 workstation, but Digital wanted to kill PDP-10.
- pinewurst 7y ago
  It wasn't a rumor, it was the KT20 "Minnow". It was a workstation sans display. Given the memory addressing limits there were reasons why it was stillborn.
  - p_l 7y ago
    I assume Minnow didn't use Model B addressing, then? My understanding was that Minnow was important step towards miniaturization of the PDP-10 line, in tandem with Jupiter (IIRC?) which spearheaded high cpu speed initiative...
    - pinewurst 7y ago
      Apparently I’m wrong about the address limits but it’s running on a really narrow microarchitecture with very limited (probably deliberately) performance.
reaperducer 7y ago
Another massive market for PDP-11's was McDonald's. They ran the cash registers in a lot of the restaurants. I knew a guy who earned a living rehabbing PDPs that had done service in McDonald's. I guess they weren't always located in the best place in the building because said he spent most of his time cleaning the dried soda off of circuit boards.

reaperducer 7y ago

A place I worked replaced its Suns with Dells. I couldn't believe they would do such a thing, since each Sun had to be replaced with three Dells to do the equivalent job. When I asked about it, the answer was simple: Three Dells were cheaper than one Sun.

pinewurst 7y ago

I wouldn't call another 5+ years of growth "right at the twilight". NeXT launched a 68030 box near simultaneously against the SS1 & DS3100. Both had faster follow-ons, goosed by the then-amazing HP PA machines (720/730). They (Sun, DEC, HP) raced each other til the Intel machines caught up. NeXT was never a player, despite Jobs attempt to define himself as the winner in the self-defined "academic workstation" segment.