Article 8076 of alt.sys.pdp10:
From: westin*nospam@graphics.cornell.edu (Stephen H. Westin)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8,alt.sys.pdp10,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: ooh, a *real* flamewar :)
Date: 12 Apr 2000 13:09:01 -0400
Organization: Cornell University Program of Computer Graphics
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korpela@islay.ssl.berkeley.edu (Eric J. Korpela) writes:

> In article <qhaej0thhc.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com>,
> Eric Smith  <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com> wrote:
> >I'm not aware of how Sun solved this problem on their 68000-based machines;
> 
> Did Sun have 68000-based machines?  I thought that the first Sun I
> used (one of those old ugly Sun 1 systems (weren't they actually
> called the Sun 100 at the time?)) was 68010 based.  It certainly had
> /bin/mc68010 linked to /bin/true.

There were SUN machines before there was a company called Sun. SUN
stands for "Stanford University Network". As I understand it, there
was a major effort to build lots of 68000-based workstations with
bitmap displays, connected by a campus-wide Ethernet (which had just
been souped up from 2MB/sec to 10MB/sec). This was all fit into a
MULTIBUS backplane. There were a couple of manufacturers of the SUN/1
processor board, which included some quantity of on-board memory. I
don't know if these machines ever ran actual Unix.

Anyway, the SUN/1 board became the nucleus of a startup company that
called itself "Sun". I believe Bill Joy came from being a Unix honcho
at Berkeley to be a founder, as well. There was another project to
build a high-performance 3D graphics subsystem; this was called IRIS,
for "Integrated Raster Imaging System". It spun off into Silicon
Graphics.

<snip>

-- 
-Stephen H. Westin
Any information or opinions in this message are mine: they do not
represent the position of Cornell University or any of its sponsors.


Article 8086 of alt.sys.pdp10:
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From: alderson@netcom2.netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8,alt.sys.pdp10,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: ooh, a *real* flamewar :)
Date: 12 Apr 2000 22:42:07 GMT
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In article <un1mznt5e.fsf@graphics.cornell.edu>
westin*nospam@graphics.cornell.edu (Stephen H. Westin) writes:

> korpela@islay.ssl.berkeley.edu (Eric J. Korpela) writes:

>> Did Sun have 68000-based machines?

> There were SUN machines before there was a company called Sun. SUN
> stands for "Stanford University Network". As I understand it, there
> was a major effort to build lots of 68000-based workstations with
> bitmap displays, connected by a campus-wide Ethernet (which had just
> been souped up from 2MB/sec to 10MB/sec). This was all fit into a
> MULTIBUS backplane. There were a couple of manufacturers of the SUN/1
> processor board, which included some quantity of on-board memory. I
> don't know if these machines ever ran actual Unix.

The SUN processor project predated 10Mbit Ethernet by quite some time; we were
still installing 10Mb when I got to Stanford in 1984, and there was a *lot* of
"yellow peril" 3Mb cable under the machine room floor at LOTS.

The SUN processor was intended to be the CPU for a "3M" machine (1MIPS, 1MB of
memory, and 1 million pixels on the display screen).  It was used by several
Stanford-derived startups, such as Sun and 'cisco Systems (oldest spelling).

Rich Alderson			Last LOTS Tops-20 Systems Programmer, 1984-1991
				Current maintainer, MIT TECO EMACS (v. 170)
				Customer Advocacy, XKL LLC, 1993-2000
last name @ XKL dot COM		Chief systems administrator, XKL LLC, 1998-now



Article 8092 of alt.sys.pdp10:
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From: Deborah Gronke Bennett <deborah.bennett@NOSPAMMERS.sun.com>
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp8,alt.sys.pdp10,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: ooh, a *real* flamewar :)
Date: 12 Apr 2000 18:37:33 -0700
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Microelectronics
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korpela@islay.ssl.berkeley.edu (Eric J. Korpela) writes:

> In article <qhaej0thhc.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com>,
> Eric Smith  <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com> wrote:
> >I'm not aware of how Sun solved this problem on their 68000-based machines;
> 
> Did Sun have 68000-based machines?   I thought that the first Sun I used
> (one of those old ugly Sun 1 systems (weren't they actually called the
> Sun 100 at the time?)) was 68010 based.  It certainly had /bin/mc68010 linked
> to /bin/true.  
> 

The Sun 100U had a Sun-2 (68010) CPU. The actual Sun-1 machines
had 68000 CPU cards.

I found a not-too-bad hardware history at this URL:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~bear/project/sun/sun.hardware.txt