[Info-vax] Dave Cutler, Prism, DEC, Microsoft, etc.

[Neil Rieck]

On Nov 12, 12:58 am, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> Neil Rieck wrote:
> > Question: Is is possible that PRISM was killed but Alpha was still
> > alive and Ken Olsen didn't know it?
> > Answer: Yes
>
> My understanding is that Prism was killed to focus on VAX 9000. After a
> period of time, the Alpha group was formed, and re-used some of the work
> done by the defunct Prism project.
>
> My non-parity-correcting memory seems to recall that it was at the
> failure of the VAX 9000 that caused Olsen goto  plan B. The N-vax group
> had already shown they could beat the vax 9000 for a lot less money, and
> olsen was shown opportunity for a new architecture and allowed the Alpha
> group to be created.

According to this interview by Gordon Bell...

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/bell.htm

http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/docs/dave_cutler-prism-mica-emerald-etc.html#prism-links

...the engineers saw the end-of-life of CISC and VAX and wanted to go
RISC. They thought that Aquarius (VAX 9000) would never make a dime so
repeatedly tried to shut down Aquarius but DEC VP Bob Glorioso would
repeatedly go to Olsen to get a reprieve, and Olsen would always
support Glorioso. DEC was bleeding money so upper management killed
PRISM then went with MIPS (supposedly a much cheaper alternative).
According to the Gordon Bell interview at the Smithsonian Institute as
well as the book "DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC", upper management
thought the whole PRISM thing was dead. They had no knowledge that
Alpha was still alive in the semiconductor division because it was
such a small (skunk works?) 6-person operation with no direct VP
support.

p.s. how many people know that Aquarius (VAX-9000) was originally
going to be a water-cooled machine? (Hence the name)

Neil Rieck
Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/