"Mike Gemeny" <MGemeny_at_pgcps.org> wrote:
> We would also like to ask if anyone knows the date of release of the
> last version of HP1000 RTE and also if anyone may know the date of
> the End-Of-Life of the HP1000 product line. (Yes it would seem that
> HP was threatening to end-of-life the HP1000 as early as the late
> 70's or early 80's but we're looking for the final end-of-life
> date.)
Well, there's end of sales life and end of support life, and if you're
thinking about the latter, we're not there yet.
<
http://www.hp.com/products1/rte/news/rtn199947.txt> suggests that HP
was thinking to keep RTE-A on the price list as late as 01 Oct 2000
and makes reference to a planned discontinuance of the 1000 product
line in 2000.
<
http://www.hp.com/products1/rte/index.html> claims that HP1000
products were removed from the price list on 01 Nov 2000.
Click around a bit, you'll find that some of the A-series hardware
doesn't reach end of support until 01 Nov 2005.
Somewhere or other I have some binders of project plans where HP was
trying to get The Wollongong Group interested in doing a sort of Unix
emulation around RTE-A (I think), with the game plan being to
encourage the RTE users to migrate to a Unix API so HP could get them
to make a smooth transition to HP-UX. These things would be from the
early-mid-1980s I think.
> Some people at HP are considering a recomendation for a license to
> software that is older than some age, and/or products that were at
> end-of-life more than some number of years ago. (The desire seems to
> be to exclude newer software such as HP3000 MPE from the license. The
> license would include software such as HP2000 Access. Inclusion of
> software such as HP1000 RTE is to-be-determined)
How about a license for software for something really obscure
from the late 1970s, the HP 300 "Amigo"?
Would HP consider such a license for MPE for some or all of the
"classic" 16-bit HP3000 architectures that were contemporary with
the HP2000's product life? How about for add-on products to
which HP has the right to license and distribute without requiring
any royalty payments?
A cutoff of release dates before 01 Jan 1986 could be very
interesting. That could permit the use of MPE IV and MPE V/R (2548),
and I think it may be in or close to the age range under consideration
as well as before the PA-RISC announcement.
HP may also remember that in late 1999 they made a Y2K-safe release of
MPE V/E (really two releases and a patch set) available to classic
3000 users without charge and without requiring an existing or even
previous software support agreement. It included a full Platform 3P
SUBSYS tape too, meaning it had all the add-on products that HP had
for the things. If HP could see their way to doing that with media
then, why not license paperwork now?
I for one will be very disappointed if HP continues to offer OpenVMS
hobbyist licenses while not offering licenses for classic-3000 MPE.
-Frank McConnell
Received on Thu Jul 08 2004 - 21:26:47 BST