GUIs 'forced' on people (was Re: Here's something to consider.)

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Fri Sep 18 16:48:21 1998

> Slow architecture results in commercial failure. But it was
> incredibly neat. It could best be characterized as a VCISC; it had
> a *much* more complex architecture than a VAX.

[lots of good i432 info snipped]

Yes, it was a slow architecture, but IBMs S/38 was as well, and it led to
one of the most sucessful lines of minis since the PDP-11, the AS/400s.
Both the i432 architecture and the S/38/AS/400 architecture were quite
similar - the heavy use of objects, memory space neither flat or
segmented, very strict accessing of objects. I think the difference could
have been "marketing" (that word again!) - put IBM's sales force out,
armed with bulletproof OS/applications, and the boxes will sell. I do not
think Intel could have done that back then. Look at how the i860 flopped -
a screaming fast CPU for floating point, but it died when Microsoft, their
only real ally for the chip, cut it out of their NT plans (OK, so their
was that pipeline problem).

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Fri Sep 18 1998 - 16:48:21 BST