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

[Richard B. Gilbert]

JF Mezei wrote:
> Neil Rieck wrote:
> 
>> There is probably something weird happening when people entertain
>> themselves with the accomplishments of a bygone era.
>>
>> 1) The 1981 book "The Soul Of A New Machine" was republished in 2000.
> 
> In hindsight, that period may end up being a crucial period in history
> for computing. Back in the 1980s, we just lived through it.
> 
> But when you look back, you look at Digital's heydays, the huge projects
>  such as Microvax II, VAX9000 and Alpha, and look at IBM doing a 180°
> and reluctantly agreeing to make its IBM PC, apple unveiling the
> MacIntosh in 1984, and the "bunch" of smaller computer makers
> disapearing/merging.
> 
> The industry has since consolidated and apart from Microsoft and Apple,
> there aren't any "big" projects anymore. Companies like HP and Dell are
> out to maximize profit and lower costs, and there are no product
> revolutions like we had in the 1980s.

I think 1984 might be the key year!  That was when, IIRC, IBM started 
pushing out the PC/XT to educational institutions.  The DEC Rainbow 100 
came along a year or so after the PC/XT and the race was on.  Somebody 
did a "clean" rewrite of the IBM BIOS code by having Team A analyze the 
code and produce a specification for a BIOS; e.g. what it did but not 
how.  Team B used the specification to write the clean BIOS.

The actual IBM BIOS was copyright but since the reverse engineered BIOS 
was not a copy, copyright did not get in the way of the clone makers.

Radio Shack and the TRS80 or "Trash 80" brought computing within reach 
of just about anyone.  Various third parties remedied many of the 
initial design defects.  Radio Shack used tin on card edge connectors 
where they should have used gold, which made the machine somewhat less 
than reliable.  Various vendors offered remedies for these deficiencies.

DEC got into the act with the Rainbow 100.  The chief virtue of this box 
was that it gave me VT100 compatibility.  Plug it into a MODEM and I 
could talk to my machines at work!