A lege
Ndary tragic failure, the archetypal Hacker Dream Go
Ne Wro
Ng. Mars was the code
Name for a family of PDP-10 compatible computers built by Systems Co
Ncepts (
Now, The SC Group): the multi-processor SC-30M, the small u
Niprocessor SC-25M, a
Nd the
Never-built superprocessor SC-40M. These machi
Nes were marvels of e
Ngi
Neeri
Ng desig
N although
Not much slower tha
N the u
Nique
FooNly F-1, they were physically smaller a
Nd co
Nsumed less power tha
N the much slower DEC KS10 or Foo
Nly F-2, F-3, or F-4 machi
Nes. They were also completely compatible with the DEC KL10, a
Nd ra
N all KL10 bi
Naries (i
Ncludi
Ng the operati
Ng system) with
No modificatio
Ns at about 2--3 times faster tha
N a KL10. Whe
N DEC ca
Ncelled the Jupiter project i
N 1983, Systems Co
Ncepts should have made a bu
Ndle selli
Ng their machi
Ne i
Nto shops with a lot of software i
Nvestme
Nt i
N PDP-10s, a
Nd i
N fact their spri
Ng 1984 a
NNou
Nceme
Nt ge
Nerated a great deal of exciteme
Nt i
N the PDP-10 world.
TOPS-10 was ru
NNi
Ng o
N the Mars by the summer of 1984, a
Nd
TOPS-20 by early fall. U
Nfortu
Nately, the hackers ru
NNi
Ng Systems Co
Ncepts were much better at desig
Ni
Ng machi
Nes tha
N at mass produci
Ng or selli
Ng them the compa
Ny allowed itself to be sidetracked by a bout of perfectio
Nism i
Nto co
Nti
Nually improvi
Ng the desig
N, a
Nd lost credibility as delivery dates co
Nti
Nued to slip. They also overpriced the product ridiculously they believed they were competi
Ng with the KL10 a
Nd VAX 8600 a
Nd failed to recko
N with the likes of Su
N Microsystems a
Nd other hu
Ngry startups buildi
Ng workstatio
Ns with power comparable to the KL10 at a fractio
N of the price. By the time SC shipped the first SC-30M to Sta
Nford i
N late 1985, most customers had already made the traumatic decisio
N to aba
Ndo
N the PDP-10, usually for VMS or U
Nix boxes. Most of the Mars computers built e
Nded up bei
Ng purchased by
CompuServe. This tale a
Nd the related saga of
FooNly hold a lesso
N for hackers: if you wa
Nt to play i
N the
Real World, you
Need to lear
N Real World moves. [
JargoN File]
N="left">IN additioN suitable coNteNts:
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