Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 23:54:29 -0700 From: Josef Grosch <jgrosch@superior.mooseriver.com> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, jgrosch@superior.mooseriver.com, Wilko Bulte <wilko@yedi.iaf.nl>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Original PC (was: talk (fwd)) Message-ID: <19980519235429.A4203@mooseriver.com> In-Reply-To: <19980520160442.U20476@freebie.lemis.com>; from Greg Lehey on Wed, May 20, 1998 at 04:04:42PM %2B0930 References: <199805191808.UAA17299@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de> <199805192157.XAA04150@yedi.iaf.nl> <19980520144300.M20476@freebie.lemis.com> <19980519232435.A3703@mooseriver.com> <19980520160442.U20476@freebie.lemis.com>
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On Wed, May 20, 1998 at 04:04:42PM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote: > On Tue, 19 May 1998 at 23:24:35 -0700, Josef Grosch wrote: [ DELETED ] > > If memory servers me right, the original IBM-PC was a semi rouge operation > > based in Boca Raton, Fl. I remember reading in Byte at the time, back in > > the days when Byte was worth reading before it became just another media > > toady for Microshit and this is covered in "Revenge of the Nerds" or > > "Accidental Empires", the suits at IBM were very nervous about missing the > > boat with the PC. This is 1979-1980. The Apple II was selling like cold > > beer at a double header in the middle of august all thanks to VisCala and > > Steve Jobs. The comment was "If we do this like a normal (IBM) product > > it'll take 4 years to ship." > > > > I think CP/M 86 and 86-DOS was after the introduction of the > > IBM-PC. > > No, that's not the case. 86-DOS was in fact the name under which > Seattle Computer Products marketed their QDOS (Quick and Dirty > Operating System). I bought a copy in about November 1980, along with > a couple of S-100 boards. Does Thunderboard sound right? IIRC it was > an 8 MHz 8086 and a combined 256 kB memory board [in my case, > populated with only 64 kB] and UART, and it supported *up to 1 MB of > RAM*. By comparison, the PC looked a little feeble when it was > announced the following year. > OK, I am very fuzzy about CP/M 86 and 86-DOS. My only experience with CP/M was my old Kapro machine which I am sure is doing great service at the bottom of Lake Minnetonka. > > I think the reason they went with Intel instead of Motorola was > > Intel told them the chip was ready, and Motorola told them 6 > > months. Intel lied and shipped late. Motorola shipped when they said > > they would but by that time they had missed their window. > > No, I don't believe that. The 8086 had been out for years, and I'm > sure I saw 68Ks in 1980. > Well, I picked up this bit of urban legend when I worked at Motorola. Sour grapes I guess. > Quite honestly, I think that IBM made the correct choice of hardware > for that machine. Hardly anybody realised what a lasting influence it > would have on the market, and getting the thing out the door was more > important. > -- Josef Grosch | Another day closer to a | FreeBSD 2.2.7 jgrosch@MooseRiver.com | Micro$oft free world | UNIX for the masses To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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