[Info-vax] CompuServe system architecture [was Re: DEC VAX 8650]

[Rich Alderson]

Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:

> On 2023-02-10 17:14, Scott Dorsey wrote:

>> But Compuserve is long gone and this appears to be a drive-by because
>> Mr. Slauson doesn't seem to have posted anything else much to Usenet.

> Compuserve was mostly running PDP-10 unless I'm confused. Would be a 
> little surprised if they had plenty of -8650s, but I could be wrong.

Compuserve was indeed a PDP-10 shop.  They developed router software which ran
on KA-10 processors to set up their network, and provided database access to
customers running System 1022 as the underlying engine.  (They eventually
bought the company in order to have continuing development of 1022.)

They switched to KL-10 processors running their own microcode in the mid-70s,
and expanded their offerings to the general public.  When Systems Concepts
introduced the SC-40 clone in the early 90s, they negotiated a licensing deal
with Mike and Stewart whereby they built their own SC-40s and paid a hefty
percentage (IIRC ~40%) of the list price; they did the same kind of microcode
revision to the system, and used those until they finally closed down the
successor (long since purchased by AOL/Time Warner).

-- 
Rich Alderson					  news at alderson.users.panix.com
      Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur,
	  omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus.
									--Galen