On Sun, Sep 10, 2023 at 9:11 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@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.

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