[Info-vax] HP wins Oracle Itanium case

[ChrisQ]

On 08/21/12 20:21, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

> Could have beens don't count for much. Pure and simple, DEC blew it! DEC
> totally missed the desk top revolution! By "desk top" I mean both X86
> and Alpha workstations. Yes, I know about the Rainbow. DEC was asking
> totally outrageous prices. Just about everyone could sell at a profit
> for far less than DEC was asking. People bought their Desktops on price
> and DEC could not or would not compete. Bye-bye DEC.
>

If you take the lid off a Rainbow, it's obvious why it was so expensive. It
was engineered the same way DEC engineered the pdp11 or Vax. Very high 
quality
hardware and quality multilayer boards, but just too much hardware and 
capability
(separate z80 to run cpm etc, iirc)  inside the box to compete with the 
likes of
Compaq, or heck, even IBM pc's. They got the message later with Alpha 
desktops:
commodity psu's. keyboards, peripherals etc and lean design, but perhaps 
then
it was too late.

I very much liked the Vaxmate as well, despite all the panning and had one
on my desktop as a terminal and for other dos type work for a few years. 
Quite
collectable now, I would think.

Take a look inside the Rainbow and the original IBM pc, or even the 
AT286 and
you'll see what I mean. I bet most of the ones still alive work perfectly...

Regards,

Chris