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

[Kier, Mike]

Message: 8

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:59:41 -0000

From: "Richard Brodie" <R.Brodie at rl.ac.uk>

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

To: info-vax at rbnsn.com

Message-ID: <hdje6t$17d$1 at south.jnrs.ja.net>

 

<R.Brodie at rl.ac.uk> wrote

> 

><BRAD at rabbit.turquoisewitch.com> wrote 

> 

>>>p.s. how many people know that Aquarius (VAX-9000) was originally

>>>going to be a water-cooled machine? (Hence the name)

>> 

>> We knew it was water-cooled when we bought two, because the computer
room had

>> to be modified to accomodate water-cooled equipment.

> 

>This is surprising, since the water-cooled design was scrapped,

>supposedly before any were sold. Maybe they were prototypes.

 

That matches my recollection of the time.

 

There were both Aridus and Aquarius systems planned, one air-cooled, one
water-cooled and a lot of non-disclosure hype provided to customers
about Aquarius, and then when the performance differential between the
two turned out to be less than anticipated and the costs of the
water-cooled Aquarius would have priced it out of any reasonable market
with a close-performing air-cooled system available, they cancelled the
original Aquarius and renamed Aridus to Aquarius to take advantage of
the hype that preceded the Aquarius introduction.