Den Tue, 8 Jan 2019 14:19:09 -0800 (PST) skrev geneb <geneb@deltasoft.com>: > On Tue, 8 Jan 2019, Segher Boessenkool wrote: > > > On Tue, Jan 08, 2019 at 12:48:49PM -0600, Jim Brain wrote: > >> On 1/8/2019 12:34 PM, Thom Cherryhomes wrote: > >>> ...and pray that it doesn't balkanize into the hell spawn > >>> marketing nightmare that was the PS/2... > >> > >> I implored folks to not demonize engineers. I should also note, > >> though, that engineers are not above scrutiny and critique. > >> > >> I choose to believe, though, that the PS/2, like the Plus/4, was > >> designed before the engineering team got involved, and the > >> engineers just lost the fight... > > > > That, or PS/2 just is second-system syndrome. > > IBM wanted to regain control of the bus and cut out the clones. > MicroChannel came along with some pretty heavy licensing fees just to > make peripheral cards. I don't know that they ever licensed the MCA > bus itself. IIRC Olivetti made PCs with MCA bus. My memory might not serve me well though. (Btw, IIRC, Olivetti were the OEM manufacturer of the Digital Equipment Corporation DEC PC 316) > The sniveling about the IBM-PC design is kind of annoying though. > They were tasked with building a business computer with 100% off the > shelf parts that had at least one second source. I don't think > IBM /ever/ marketed the PC to the home market. They tried with the PCjr, which was what Tandy based their Tandy 1000 on and which actually sold in non-negligible quantities, making what really was PCjr graphics modes (like CGA but with more colors in the graphics modes) being called Tandy mode in mode selection things in various softwares. IBMs problem were that they had to make the PCjr a piece of crap to make sure that business users wouldn't buy that instead of the standard PC. Lots can be said about the PCjr. A better way for IBM to make sure it wouldn't sell to business users but still being a useable thing would be to equip it with a membrane keyboard and make sure it wouldn't be possible to replace the keyboard without voiding the warranty. > If I recall correctly, the 8088 was cheaper than the 8086, so that's > what they ran with. It could also be purchased from AMD. It also made for example the bus connectors and a bunch of other stuff cheaper, so it wasn't just the price of the CPU itself. -- (\_/) Copy the bunny to your mails to help (O.o) him achieve world domination. (> <) Come join the dark side. /_|_\ We have cookies.Received on 2019-01-10 21:00:30
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