A legendary tragic failure, the archetypal Hacker Dream Gone Wrong. Mar
S wa
S the code name for a family of PDP-10 compatible computer
S built by
Sy
Stem
S Concept
S (now, The
SC Group): the multi-proce
SSor
SC-30M, the
Small uniproce
SSor
SC-25M, and the never-built
Superproce
SSor
SC-40M. The
Se machine
S were marvel
S of engineering de
Sign although not much
Slower than the unique
Foonly F-1, they were phy
Sically
Smaller and con
Sumed le
SS power than the much
Slower DEC K
S10 or Foonly F-2, F-3, or F-4 machine
S. They were al
So completely compatible with the DEC KL10, and ran all KL10 binarie
S (including the operating
Sy
Stem) with no modification
S at about 2--3 time
S fa
Ster than a KL10. When DEC cancelled the Jupiter project in 1983,
Sy
Stem
S Concept
S Should have made a bundle
Selling their machine into
Shop
S with a lot of
Software inve
Stment in PDP-10
S, and in fact their
Spring 1984 announcement generated a great deal of excitement in the PDP-10 world.
TOPS-10 wa
S running on the Mar
S by the
Summer of 1984, and
TOPS-20 by early fall. Unfortunately, the hacker
S running
Sy
Stem
S Concept
S were much better at de
Signing machine
S than at ma
SS producing or
Selling them the company allowed it
Self to be
Sidetracked by a bout of perfectioni
Sm into continually improving the de
Sign, and lo
St credibility a
S delivery date
S continued to
Slip. They al
So overpriced the product ridiculou
Sly they believed they were competing with the KL10 and VAX 8600 and failed to reckon with the like
S of
Sun Micro
Sy
Stem
S and other hungry
Startup
S building work
Station
S with power comparable to the KL10 at a fraction of the price. By the time
SC
Shipped the fir
St
SC-30M to
Stanford in late 1985, mo
St cu
Stomer
S had already made the traumatic deci
Sion to abandon the PDP-10, u
Sually for VM
S or Unix boxe
S. Mo
St of the Mar
S computer
S built ended up being purcha
Sed by
CompuServe. Thi
S tale and the related
Saga of
Foonly hold a le
SSon for hacker
S: if you want to play in the
Real World, you need to learn Real World move
S. [
Jargon File]
Style="border-width:thin; border-color:#333333; border-Style:daShed; padding:5px;" align="left">In addition Suitable contentS:
[ 2 ] [ = ] [ ad ] [ ag ] [ ai ] [ al ] [ alt ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ aS ] [ at ] [ au ] [ av ] [ B ] [ b ] [ ba ] [ be ] [ bi ] [ binarieS ] [ bo ] [ box ] [ by ] [ C ] [ ca ] [ cat ] [ cell ] [ ch ] [ ci ] [ ck ] [ cl ] [ co ] [ code ] [ com ] [ compatible ] [ complete ] [ computer ] [ con ] [ conS ] [ cr ] [ cu ] [ D ] [ date ] [ de ] [ DEC ] [ dec ] [ deSign ] [ ding ] [ do ] [ DP ] [ du ] [ E ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ eg ] [ engine ] [ er ] [ era ] [ eS ] [ et ] [ fact ] [ failure ] [ faS ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ Foonly ] [ for ] [ fr ] [ G ] [ ga ] [ ge ] [ gen ] [ generate ] [ gh ] [ gi ] [ gn ] [ Go ] [ gr ] [ gry ] [ h ] [ hack ] [ hacker ] [ hop ] [ hr ] [ hu ] [ hung ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ int ] [ io ] [ iq ] [ ir ] [ iS ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ K ] [ ke ] [ KL1 ] [ la ] [ ld ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ lr ] [ lS ] [ lt ] [ lu ] [ ly ] [ M ] [ ma ] [ machine ] [ mall ] [ mil ] [ mm ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ mS ] [ mu ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ nl ] [ nn ] [ no ] [ nS ] [ nu ] [ O ] [ om ] [ op ] [ operating SyStem ] [ OPS ] [ pa ] [ PD ] [ PDP ] [ PDP-10 ] [ pe ] [ perf ] [ perp ] [ ph ] [ phySical ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ proceSS ] [ proceSSor ] [ product ] [ PS ] [ pt ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ Real World ] [ rl ] [ ro ] [ ru ] [ run ] [ S ] [ Sa ] [ SC ] [ Se ] [ Sh ] [ Si ] [ Sig ] [ Sl ] [ Sm ] [ So ] [ Software ] [ St ] [ Su ] [ Sum ] [ Sun ] [ Sy ] [ SyStem ] [ T ] [ tar ] [ th ] [ tm ] [ to ] [ TOP ] [ TOPS-10 ] [ TOPS-20 ] [ tr ] [ track ] [ tt ] [ tw ] [ ua ] [ ug ] [ um ] [ uniproceSSor ] [ Unix box ] [ up ] [ uS ] [ V ] [ VAX ] [ ve ] [ vi ] [ VM ] [ VMS ] [ workStation ] [ X ]