[TUHS] one element of one of M factions of N companies [Re: Amdahl UTS, AIX/370, AIX/ESA

Clem says today "It was then I realized IBM was N different companies, each competing with each other." He's said that to me before and I then responded "Actually, it was more like M competing factions within N competing companies." It has been illuminating, surprising, but not shocking, the last week of so, to learn from from posts here, that AIX/370 was hard to get and mostly a university offering. What we (AIX people associated with RT/PC and then RS/6000) were told was that "everybody", especially Federal customers, wanted what became known as TCF (the original Locus work) for 370 and PS/2. I remember one Federal Systems Division person who seemed especially effective as a Locus advocate. I'd always assumed AIX/370 and AIX PS/2 became more available than reported here, but I left IBM before they were released. Enumerating factions/companies, just regarding AIX & Unix, there were the Federal Systems faction/company, the academic factions/company (primarily two factions, BSD & TCF, in Palo Alto), the PS/2 faction/company, the Rochester System/38->AS/400 faction/company, the Austin development lab, several Research locations (primarily Yorktown), ... And in LCC there were the firewalled TCF/TNC entities. It would be interesting to know more from the TCF folks at LCC. With Jerry's passing, if there is to be further clarity on what happened with AIX/370, it would probably have to come from Bruce Walker or Greg Thiel. I don't think I've had contact with either since I left IBM in 1989. CHS On 11/5/2019 11:30 AM, Clem Cole wrote: -- voice: +1.512.784.7526 e-mail: sauer(a)technologists.com fax: +1.512.346.5240 Web: https://technologists.com/sauer/ Facebook/Google/Skype/Twitter: CharlesHSauer