Whoops, my bad, hadn't considered NCR in this train of thought.
And it sounds like the Nokia stream is a compelling direction, what with the 3B20
emulation and all that, it was a telecom processor after all. Glad to see I'm not
just stumped, that it can be a little unclear.
- Matt G.
P.S. I realize my last P.S. may be more opinion oriented and/or controversial..just wanna
recognize that oversight, no harm intended, different discussion for a different time
------- Original Message -------
On Sunday, September 10th, 2023 at 6:43 PM, Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> wrote:
On Sun, Sep 10, 2023 at 9:11 PM segaloco via TUHS
<tuhs(a)tuhs.org> wrote:
Is there a clear, current owner of these WECo
hardware IPs, or have those waters grown even murkier than those of UNIX in the times
after AT&T proper?
I have never seen an unofficial, much less an official, reckoning, but if you
discover/unearth something, it will be interesting to read.
That said, you left out one piece of history. Please remember that AT&T bought NCR in
the mid-1980s (and eventually spun it off a few years later). The UNIX HW development was
moved into the new division of the old NCR, including the 3B series work, the WE32000, and
some other semiconductor IPs.
FWIW: That occurred when I consulted for NCR's Chief Architect (Lee Hovel) in the
mid-late 80s (I did some of the analysis for Lee on what IP was there). But that all
settled out after my contract expired, so I don't know how it finally settled - other
than I'm reasonably sure that most of the 3B and chip development reported up through
an ex-NCR exec after purchase. Those teams and their associated IP were folded into things
like the old NCR semi-conductor, NCR Computer, etc.. IIRC Also, a few NCR communications
products were moved out of the old NCR team and into the old WE folks.
So .... I would not be surprised if when NCR was later spun back out, some of the old
AT&T IP (such as the computer HW and chip IP) went with them, just as when Novell was
sold the UNIX SW IP. Of course, later, Lucent, ney Alcatel, ney Nokia - got the
communications IP.
ᐧ