Modern Minimalism (Was: Future Computing Trends)

From: Jeff Kaneko <Jeff.Kaneko_at_ifrsys.com>
Date: Mon Feb 23 14:46:57 1998

> On Sat, 21 Feb 1998, John Foust wrote:
>
> > I think CP/M-68K was cross-compiled under Alcyon C on a VAX 11/780.
> > (Alcyon also produced an OS called Regulus that was available
> > for Smoke Signal Broadcasting's 68000 systems.)
>
> Wow, I thought I was the only one who had ever heard of Alcyon. FWIW,
> they OEM'd their compiler from Greenhills, who are still in business. I
> remember cracking passwords on our Regulus box (for some semi-legitimate
> reason that escapes me). It's not supposed to be possible to decrypt
> standard DES Unix passwords (programs like crack don't decrypt, they just
> guess at passwords), but Alcyon apparently had a programmer who thought
> that his encryption scheme was just as good as DES (it wasn't).
>
> We put Regulus on a 68K-based luggable in 1985 (perhaps the first portable
> Unix workstation?), but the company ran out of cash before production
> fully ramped.
>
> -- Doug
>
>

And I'll almost bet that that company was FORTUNE microsystems,
right?

But such a blast from the past! I didn't think anybody
remembered those SSB 68000 based systems. I saw the ads years ago,
but I've never actually seen one of those.

Jeff
Received on Mon Feb 23 1998 - 14:46:57 GMT