6 Jan
2015
6 Jan
'15
11:55 p.m.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 5:45 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
I have no idea why DEC didn't put it in the 60 -
probably helped kill that
otherwise intersting machine, with its UCS, early...
"Halt and confuse ucode" had a lot to do with it IMO.
FYI: The 60 set the record of going from production to "traditional
products" faster than anything else in DEC's history. As I understand
it, the 11/60 was expected to a business system and run RSTS. Why the WCS
was put in, I never understood, other than I expect the price of static RAM
had finally dropped and DEC was buying it in huge quantities for the
Vaxen. The argument was that they could update the ucode cheaply in the
field (which to my knowledge the never did). But I asked that question
many years ago to one of the HW manager, who explained to me that it was
felt separate I/D was not needed for the targeted market and would have
somehow increased cost. I don't understand why it would have cost any
more but I guess it was late.