[Info-vax] RealWorldTech on Poulson

[Neil Rieck]

On Jul 5, 1:05 pm, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> Michael Kraemer wrote:
> > Had DEC put one of their three or four paper RISCs
> > into silicon already in the late 1980's, they would have
> > had a chance. Likewise, if they had stayed with their Mips
> > decision.
> > But starting from scratch with Alpha and burning money,
> > when all the competition was already earning money,
> > that was really gaga.
>
> One word: VAX 9000
>
> DEC canned "Alpha" because it got convinced that a mainframe 9000 would
> do it. It took some time before it was realised that the VAX 9000 was
> going nowhere, after which the Alpha project was resurected, after
> having lost much time and important people.
>
> Hindsight is 20/20.   Back then, it may not have been so obvious what
> the best direction should be.

I think you meant "DEC canned PRISM/Emerald/Mica"

BTW, anyone interested in the details of this debacle should pick up a
copy of "DEC is dead, long live DEC". The whole book was meant to be a
postmortem of DEC (and a warning to future companies of what not to
do). While I valued the whole book, one of the appendixes was written
by Gordon Bell and warns of not falling in love with technology (VPs
behind Aquarius (VAX-9000) loved VAX and so didn't notice the rest of
the industry was moving to RISC).

NSR