Re: is freebsd = linux = unix?

From: Louis Epstein (lepslog_at_PUF.FCC.NET)
Date: 09/13/03 

Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 14:36:20 -0500

Bill Vermillion <bv@wjv.comremove> wrote:
: In article <bju8uf$nqf$1@news1.transmedia.de>,
: jpd <read_the_sig@do.not.spam.it> wrote:
:>In article <HL4u60.121A@wjv.com>, Bill Vermillion wrote:
:>> In article <SgudnScS0fVK6_-iXTWJjg@fcc.net>,
:>Louis Epstein <le@put.com> wrote:
:>>>jpd <read_the_sig@do.not.spam.it> wrote:
:>>>: In article <HL06vo.wvw@wjv.com>, Bill Vermillion wrote:
:>>>:> In article <Xns93F1C3CC89083nobodynowhere@68.6.19.6>,
:>>>:> Z.Z. <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:

:>[snip]

:>> The Z80-SIO was one of the best damn serial chips I had on any
:>> machine. Instead of the low values that were in the iNTEL 8550 and
:>> 16550 the Zilog chip could go as high at 500MHz bit rate and was
:>> used in such things as floppy disk controllers for data
:>> transmission.

:>``Hey, we don't need all that speed. The cpu can't keep up anyway.''

: Gack! What a horrible typo I made. That should be 500Khz - the
: speed of the floppies. :-(

:>>>They probably could have crushed Intel if their parent
:>>>had invested more...

:>> The problem was that the people who designed the IBM PC chose the
:>> 8088 chip from iNTEL. At that time many thought that was a poor
:>> choice.

:>I've read a while back ibm did this because they had some sort of tech-
:>swap-deal with intel: 8088 in return for ibms bubble memory technology.
:>Like their micros~1 deal, this has been hugely profitable for many
:>people, but it wasn't really sound business: it could have been so much
:>better. I think I'll write it off as the weaknesses of capitalism.

: That doesn't ring any bells with me.

: What is thought of the first PC was actually IBM's third attempt.
: This was sort of cobbled together by the people down in Boca.

: I knew a person locally who had been doing circuit design for them
: during that era, and decided to start up his own company to make
: add-in boards and peripherals. He started with a floppy controller
: card with modules that plugged in to give you serial and parallel
: ports all on one card. Ezch serial port was a $70 module that
: was added on to the base card at about $200. He and his wife
: started it and I remember buying some floppe drives at a discount
: of $225 for a 360K DS/DD drive. He called that compnay Maynard,
: later made tape drives and sold it to Archive in the end.

: But most of the original desisgns as I recall just sort of happened
: - and it seemed to be more like being done at a hobbyist level than
: and engineering project.

: I even had a BBS up and running 24x7 months before PC came out - so
: most of this is from memory - not from reading about it - and I've
: noted that so many who write about seem to have read others reports
: earlier - and like the proverbial story passed around the campfile
: by the time it gets back to the originator it has changed beyond
: recognition.

:>> But the first PC was not well-engineered in many peoples
:>> POV. In many ways it was more like a team of SW people assembling
:>> something from stock parts instead of having an engineered design
:>> to start with.

:>It did have (or at least I've seen 8088 clones with) Z80-SIOs. Prolly
:>not on the original tho.

: I do remeber a company that made an add-in serial card with the
: Z80-SIOs. I want to say that was AST - but I don't have 100%
: confidence that is correct. The problem was that it required a bit
: more understanding than the stock 8550. As I recall you had to
: perform two steps - select a register/address ?? and then after
: that perform your magic, while the 8550 was able to be accessed
: directly. So that meant you had to be bit more of a real
: programmer for that chip.

:>> But once it became popular the die was cast for
:>> iNTEL to become the giant it is today.

:>Interesting parallel here. There's been some noise around that
:>the intel people are verging on the incompetent now; they can
:>hardly build their own 64bit chip themselves. They really _need_
:>external technology to go on and try and crank out shittier and
:>shittier cpus (32 and 64 bit).

: I think that history has proven that superior technology almost
: never wins ;-(.

: BTW - did I cut too much. [I started this post and went away from
: it for about two hours]. Was it you who mentioned Northstar?
: ISTR those - at least some of their systems - used a hard sectored
: 16 sector floppy - with the sector holes cut on the outside rim.
: And also ISTR they were called Kentucky Fried Computers when they
: first came out until Kentucky Fried Chicken complained, and
: they changed their name to Northstar.

I think you're confusing a couple of different companies.
Northstar (check the archives of comp.sys.northstar) started
making floppy drives/OSes before making PCs beginning with the
S-100 Horizon.When they went under they were making IBM-compatibles.

: So many of the startup has fun/hacker names - often parodying
: well known names - until they were told to cease and desist.

Asimov never went after US Robotics...which,years before 1982,
was saying how it had been around since 1982,the year his "United
States Robots and Mechanical Men" got started.

I recall The Computer Corner in White Plains (where we got the Sols,
the oldest computer store in NY State by the time it closed in 1985)
advertising a list of suppliers that sounded like it had to be a joke,
ending with "Blast Master and Pickles & Trout".But the companies were
real.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.