[Info-vax] Continued development of PDP-10 architecture [was Re: Hard links on VMS ODS5 disks]

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-07-31 08:28, terry-... at glaver.org wrote:
> On Thursday, July 27, 2023 at 4:20:25 PM UTC-4, Rich Alderson wrote:
>> The follow-on, codenamed
>> "Jupiter", was supposed to be 2.5x a KL-10, but never got to even 2x in prototype.
>>
>> All of this was going on while the middle management in the VAX world was
>> promoting Bell's "one architecture for everything" dream, pulling personnel and
>> funding from the other product lines, contributing to the delays which were the
>> nominal reason for the cancellation of Jupiter.
> 
> The Dolphin (KM-10 or KXF10 at various times) had hopes of being both a
> KL-10 and a VAX: "Dolphin is an advanced computer system based on a new
> generation CPU incorporating Macro Cell Array technology. It is the logical
> successor to the KL-10 based PDP-10/20 system, and may well become the
> high-end VAX system." That seems like an odd idea - the additional 4 bits in
> registers, data paths and main memory would seem to be an unnecessary
> expense in VAX mode.

Well, it floundered anyway.
I suspect for either system, there would have been lots of unneeded bits 
required for the other one.

> LCG kept steaming on, full speed ahead, until it ran into an iceberg with the VAX
> 9000. Rumor had it that by then, the number of people in LCG who had been
> there long enough to get a first-pass product out the door had dwindled to a
> very small percentage of the people in the group.
> 
> I remember being at a DECUS symposium where LCG had a mostly-empty
> exhibit. I asked "So, what are you people up to, anyway?" and got a behind-
> the-curtain view of a Multi-Chip Unit from an unspecified forthcoming
> product. The packaging was truly bizarre and nothing at all like previous
> DEC designs. It actually looked like something IBM would do.

That's how I would describe the modules in the 9000...

   Johnny