So I've been studying the Interdata 32-bit machines a bit more closely lately and
I'm wondering if someone who was there at the time has the scoop on what happened to
them. The Wikipedia article gives some good info on their history but not really anything
about, say, failed follow-ons that tanked their market, significant reasons for avoidance,
or anything like that. I also find myself wondering why Bell didn't do anything with
the Interdata work after springboarding further portability efforts while several other
little streams, even those unreleased like the S/370 and 8086 ports seemed to stick around
internally for longer. Were Interdata machines problematic in some sort of way, or was it
merely fate, with more popular minis from DEC simply spacing them out of the market? Part
of my interest too comes from what influence the legacy of Interdata may have had on
Perkin-Elmer, as I've worked with Perkin-Elmer analytical equipment several times in
the chemistry-side of my career and am curious if I was ever operating some vague
descendent of Interdata designs in the embedded controllers in say one of my mass specs
back when.
- Matt G.
P.S. Looking for more general history hence COFF, but towards a more UNIXy end, if
there's any sort of missing scoop on the life and times of the Bell Interdata 8/32
port, for instance, whether it ever saw literally any production use in the System or was
only ever on the machines being used for the portability work, I'm sure that could
benefit from a CC to TUHS if that history winds up in this thread.