<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 9:24 AM Dan Cross <<a href="mailto:crossd@gmail.com" target="_blank">crossd@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I wouldn't try to be too rigid in your terms here. The term<br>
"workstation" was probably never well-defined<br></blockquote><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I agree.</span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
By the early 90s this was understood to mean a single-user machine in<br>
a desktop or deskside form factor with a graphics display, and a more<br>
advanced operating system than something you'd get on a consumer-grade<br>
machine.  But the term probably predated that. <br></blockquote><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Definitely.</span> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<br>
Would a Tek 4014 connected to a VAX count?<br></blockquote><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">And herein lies the issue.  The term was taken from the engineering/architecture style definition of the 50s/60s</span> <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">- where someone had a desk/table/bench and <i>area to do 'work'</i>.</span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">With the CTSS/Multrics et al., the birth of interactive computing is the term used to define an area (usually in a shared computer terminal room). </span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">By the time of Tek 4014 and ME<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">-</span>CAD in particular, you often saw darkened rooms where one or two Tek 4000 series terminals might be attached to a large (more capable) computer - be it a PDP-10, IBM, or later Vaxen.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">  </span></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">At this point, everything is shared - because the computer is shared - only on the terminal itself is a single user, but this was called a 'workstation,' at that time </span><i style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><u>as the place where you did work</u></i><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">..</span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Fast forward to the first personal (mini) computer -  <i><u>a.k.a.</u></i> the. Xerox Alto</span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">These were intended to be single-user computer systems, and the CPU was not a shared resource like a time-shared system. </span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Next, we see the MIT LISP machine and the PascALTO [<i>a.k.a</i>. the. 3-Rivers Perq] -- same thing.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> BTW: </span></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I <span class="gmail_default">also </span>just looked at <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">my copy of </span>the CMU SPICE (</span>Scientific<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> Personal Integrated Computing Environment). <span class="gmail_default"> In none of these does the term workstation show up (be. used) <i style="text-decoration-line:underline">to describe the computer itself</i> - </span></span><i style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">i.e.,</i><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> the term <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">is still only used in the context of the place/area you do work.  All of these use the term <i>personal computer </i>to describe the device being used in that place<i>.</i></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><i><br></i></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">We also start to see the birth of firms like Apollo, Masscomp, and later VLSI Systems (later renamed Sun Microsystems).  But also build personal computers that can perform the same computing task as 32-bit minicomputers such as the Vax.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><i><br></i></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Fast forward to the IBM release of the IBM 5150 Personal Computer based on an Intel 8088 - which is decidedly a much less capable computer than what is being sold by the folks using Vaxen, M68000s, or Zilion Z8000.  While this system can be a fine replacement for a 'word processor' and even run the business friends 'Visicalc' - it is not suited for the CAD style work that is ruining on minicomputers.  But ... IBM usurps the term 'Personal Computer' to describe their new product (and make it sound a bit more than what it really was). But now you have a problem in the market at large.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></span></span></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Marketing folks at places like 3-Rivers, Apollo, and the like need a new term to start to describe the </span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">capabilities<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> of the </span></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">computer<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> in their</span></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> more expensive<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default">product</span>s to differentiate them<span class="gmail_default"> from the </span>new IBM product <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">and explain their value for that extra cost -> i.e. they were no selling personal computers, but complete and much more </span>capable systems<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> that integrated into a network, had raster graphics, <i>etc</i></span>. <span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">and to perform tasks that the IBM PC was unable. </span>So they took the term of how the product was being used -> </span><i style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">to create a place to do work, to be the device that allowed you to do (real) work</i><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">.</span></div></div></div><div hspace="streak-pt-mark" style="max-height:1px"><img alt="" style="width:0px;max-height:0px;overflow:hidden" src="https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=aY2xlbWNAY2NjLmNvbQ%3D%3D&type=zerocontent&guid=0b895b9b-de29-4fa7-81a5-67969a087aa1"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">ᐧ</font></div>