[TUHS] Reaction to the 3B2 at Bell Labs

[William Corcoran]

I have a 3b2/300.  Anytime you run a command that is compute bound, like factoring a large prime number, the CPU buzzes!



Bill Corcoran



On Nov 27, 2022, at 9:52 AM, John P. Linderman <jpl.jpl at gmail.com> wrote:


[EXTERNAL]

We were "gifted" a 3B2, as in "take this and use it!". I ran a "ps" command in single user mode, and it took 20 seconds to run.
Our machine names were themed around bird names, so we christened the 3B2 "junco". Our director said we had to get along,
so we renamed it "jay". But everyone knew what the J stood for. The 3B2 served as a doorstop.

On Sat, Nov 26, 2022 at 11:44 PM Phil Budne <phil at ultimate.com<mailto:phil at ultimate.com>> wrote:
Larry McVoy wrote:
> I read the Wikipedia page on the 9000.  It's sad that the 9000
> wasn't cancelled when they had better alternatives.

In an oral history Bob Supnik described Ken Olsen couldn't get his
head around the fact that the NVAX chip could equal the 9000:

@2:59:45 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3tcCBHRIfU

In part 2, Bob described how then DEC VP Gordon Bell having earlier
predicted when the microprocessor performance curve would cross over
minis and mainframes:

@1:51:45 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3tcCBHRIfU

He also talks about how the company couldn't command the bsame gross
margins as it did in the VAX era.


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