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When Exxon wanted to be a personal computing revolutionary

41 points by Hooke 12y ago

ChuckMcM 12y ago
I remember finding an Exxon branded office machine at a swap meet and thinking "really?". So I guess we give Exxon a hat tip to know this was going to be very large industry, but a poor mark for not being able to effectively implement that vision. I wasn't a big fan of the Z8000 but the data sheets for the Z280 had me thinking it would be an excellent basis for a 16 bit machine. Too bad it took way too long to come out.
chiph 12y ago
Computerworld article from 1980: https://books.google.com/books?id=OMthpMVWLOAC&pg=RA1-PA83&lpg=RA1-PA83&dq=exxon+data+systems&source=bl&ots=xlkY18uhvw&sig=CbLPqdpSm2rjlUzur73RQGWRnBY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Fzo9VbmPNsndsAXVsoDAAg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=exxon%20data%20systems&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=OMthpMVWLOAC&pg=RA1-PA83&l... They were projecting $695 million in office automation revenue for 1985. Obviously, that didn't work out. Excellent quote in there: "Northern believes software development may be Exxon's biggest problem in tying the loose ends together"
- walterbell 12y ago
  How does one search Google for old Computerworld (or other old magazine) articles? I don't recall seeing those in the results for Google Books searches.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    http://books.google.nl/books/about/Computerworld.html?id=ph6vc1JYSAIC&redir_esc=y http://books.google.nl/books/about/Computerworld.html?id=ph6...
saryant 12y ago
Exxon was involved in a lot of side ventures in the 70s and 80s, largely due to an excess of capital with few places in the industry to invest it and a fear that the rise of oil nationalism could fatally deprive Exxon of the booked reserves it needs. Most of that ended after Valdez and was accelerated when Lee "Iron Ass" Raymond became CEO in 1993. He was not amused by Exxon's non-oil ventures.
- adventured 12y ago
  GM went through a similar phase with EDS and Hughes in the mid 1980s (which is of course how GM ended up owning DirecTV). I can't help but think Google is behaving similarly today, at the height of its power. Cars, Nest, fiber, wireless, robotics, biotech; and I suspect that will continue to expand.
  - jn1234 12y ago
    Except Google's core competency is software. Google has the advantage of being essentially controlled by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They only need one of those things to succeed (cars). It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. Google's fiber play has nothing to do with actually making money. It is about making sure that cable companies abide by net neutrality and not cutoff or strangle Google's bandwidth intensive services like YouTube.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. I don't know, some are pretty good, and they don't even need the LIDAR: https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA
      - jn1234 12y ago
        Highway self-driving is pretty much consumer-grade now. Infiniti already has it in their vehicles. Telsa is planning on rolling it out this summer. The main problem is urban and suburban driving and dealing with unexpected situations such as jaywalkers or a cyclists running stoplights or a kid running out after a ball.
digi_owl 12y ago
I don't get this constant push of "internet of things". Very few devices i have, that are not pure information devices, can be operated for any duration without some sort of human attention.

41 points by Hooke 12y ago

I remember finding an Exxon branded office machine at a swap meet and thinking "really?". So I guess we give Exxon a hat tip to know this was going to be very large industry, but a poor mark for not being able to effectively implement that vision. I wasn't a big fan of the Z8000 but the data sheets for the Z280 had me thinking it would be an excellent basis for a 16 bit machine. Too bad it took way too long to come out.

chiph 12y ago

Computerworld article from 1980: https://books.google.com/books?id=OMthpMVWLOAC&pg=RA1-PA83&lpg=RA1-PA83&dq=exxon+data+systems&source=bl&ots=xlkY18uhvw&sig=CbLPqdpSm2rjlUzur73RQGWRnBY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Fzo9VbmPNsndsAXVsoDAAg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=exxon%20data%20systems&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=OMthpMVWLOAC&pg=RA1-PA83&l... They were projecting $695 million in office automation revenue for 1985. Obviously, that didn't work out. Excellent quote in there: "Northern believes software development may be Exxon's biggest problem in tying the loose ends together"

walterbell 12y ago
How does one search Google for old Computerworld (or other old magazine) articles? I don't recall seeing those in the results for Google Books searches.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  http://books.google.nl/books/about/Computerworld.html?id=ph6vc1JYSAIC&redir_esc=y http://books.google.nl/books/about/Computerworld.html?id=ph6...

saryant 12y ago

Exxon was involved in a lot of side ventures in the 70s and 80s, largely due to an excess of capital with few places in the industry to invest it and a fear that the rise of oil nationalism could fatally deprive Exxon of the booked reserves it needs. Most of that ended after Valdez and was accelerated when Lee "Iron Ass" Raymond became CEO in 1993. He was not amused by Exxon's non-oil ventures.

adventured 12y ago
GM went through a similar phase with EDS and Hughes in the mid 1980s (which is of course how GM ended up owning DirecTV). I can't help but think Google is behaving similarly today, at the height of its power. Cars, Nest, fiber, wireless, robotics, biotech; and I suspect that will continue to expand.
- jn1234 12y ago
  Except Google's core competency is software. Google has the advantage of being essentially controlled by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They only need one of those things to succeed (cars). It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. Google's fiber play has nothing to do with actually making money. It is about making sure that cable companies abide by net neutrality and not cutoff or strangle Google's bandwidth intensive services like YouTube.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. I don't know, some are pretty good, and they don't even need the LIDAR: https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA
    - jn1234 12y ago
      Highway self-driving is pretty much consumer-grade now. Infiniti already has it in their vehicles. Telsa is planning on rolling it out this summer. The main problem is urban and suburban driving and dealing with unexpected situations such as jaywalkers or a cyclists running stoplights or a kid running out after a ball.

digi_owl 12y ago

I don't get this constant push of "internet of things". Very few devices i have, that are not pure information devices, can be operated for any duration without some sort of human attention.