old threaded languages, was Re: Symbolics

From: Bill Dawson <whdawson_at_mlynk.com>
Date: Wed Mar 1 13:35:17 2000

Jay West wrote:

-> The first OS type design project I was ever offered was to write
-> a run time
-> forth interpreter and complete OS environment for it on Microdata Reality
-> computers (subsequently McDonnell Douglas Computer Systems). As I recall
-> they had some type of medical oriented accounting or business package
-> written in forth and they wanted to make it run (without another
-> underlying
-> OS) on the Reality platform (which they owned).

As an ex-Microdata (then MDCS) senior field engineer I can say that would
have been quite a feat, since the Reality microcode (2901s again) was
optimized for the PICK OS. The real problem would have been getting any
information out of Microdata on the microcode, which was considered
proprietary information. Writing a Data Basic application would have been
easy, since this was encouraged (the more vertical markets, the better the
sales), but the underlying OS code was closely guarded, along with the
microcode. This applied to all the I/O code also, since the company wanted
you to buy *everything* from them. The only place there was any OS source
code was at the Irvine HQ. Even the ROM board that contained the microcode
was separate from the CPU board set and was never sold to the customer, it
was leased to them and remained the property of Microdata. Upon re-sale
(almost never) or decommissioning (most likely) of a system, the ROM board
was to be pulled and returned to Microdata/MDCS immediately. This is why
you'll hardly ever find an older Reality system in operating condition,
although there were times when the return of the ROM board was overlooked
d8^)

For a nice picture of the REALITY logo, visit
http://www.wpic.com/whdawson/Pics/reality.jpg
When MDCS closed down the local sales branch, I obtained this sign. I
always liked this logo with its "optical illusion". I think it was a play on
the old "What is reality" saying.

Bill

whdawson_at_mlynk.com
Received on Wed Mar 01 2000 - 13:35:17 GMT

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