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AT&T Computer Systems is the generic name for American Telephone & Telegraph's unsuccessful attempt to compete in the computer business. In return for divesting the local Bell Operating Companies (Baby Bells), AT&T was allowed to have an unregulated division to sell computer hardware and software. The company made the 3B series computers.
In the early 1980s, the Bell Labs Processor Division had developed several computer ranges, primarily for internal Bell System use: the 3B20D ("D" for Duplex); the commercial simplex version 3B20S, which competed with the DEC VAX; and the 3B5 and 3B15 computers for billing and telecom switching control applications, which used the world's first 32-bit microprocessor, the Bellmac 32A.
After divestiture of the Bell System on January 1, 1984, AT&T was required to put its computer business into a fully separated subsidiary called AT&T Information Systems (ATTIS, without the ampersand or hyphen). Software was developed in New Jersey (at Murray Hill, Summit, Holmdel, and Piscataway), and software, hardware, and system solutions were developed in Naperville and Lisle, Illinois. After a couple of years of court hearings, AT&T was allowed to pull the business back into the mainstream corporate organization, and it was renamed AT&T Data Systems Group, which had three divisions: Computer, Terminals (the Teletype Corporation of Skokie, Illinois), and Printers. AT&T Data Systems Group was announced to the public in 1991. In 1992 the Terminals division was sold to Memorex-Telex, and the Printer division, which had only bought OEM equipment from Genicom, was phased out. By the mid-1990s, this left only AT&T Computer Systems.
AT&T Computer Systems (abbreviated AT&T-CS) was the home of the UNIX System V operating system, originally developed in the Bell Labs Research Division. The important System V Interface Definition (SVID) was written, attempting to standardize the various flavors of Unix, and define the official interfaces which made up a Unix operating system. In 1988, AT&T announced its intent to buy up to a 20% stake in Sun Microsystems, a company then best known for making high-end Unix workstations. [1] Upset at their academic-minded supplier (Bell Labs) now turned competitor (AT&T-CS), the "Gang of Seven" Unix system vendors founded the Open Software Foundation (OSF), each contributing source code from their UNIX SVR3 versions. AT&T founded the UNIX International organization as a response to the OSF. But by the late 1980s, AT&T had almost given up, sold most of its stake in Sun, spun the Unix business off as Unix System Laboratories (which was later bought by Novell), canceled its WE 32000 (aka BELLMAC) and CRISP (C Reduced Instruction Set Processor) microprocessor product lines, and just concentrated on networked server computer systems. See also Unix wars.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, AT&T-CS produced many "firsts" in the computer world, besides the UNIX operating system itself. The 3B5 and 3B15 were the first computers to be designed with the 32-bit WE 32000 microprocessor, and the 3B15 was the first computer to run a demand-paging version of Unix. There was a project, codenamed "Alice", to develop the 3B5 into an asymmetric multiprocessor with 3 CPUs, but this was canceled in favor of the demand paging 3B15 project, and a few of the "Alice" participants left the company and went to Sequent Computer Systems.
The 3B5, 3B15, 3B20S and 3B20D line, begun in 1982, was aimed at the former AT&T subsidiaries the RBOCs. Around 70,000 units were made before production ceased at the Oklahoma City Works (a former Western Electric factory) in 1993. [2]
Starting with ATTIS in 1984, development of a commercial version of the 3B hardware commenced. The Motorola 68010-based UNIX PC (aka the 3B1) was released in 1985, developed externally by Convergent Technologies. This product was not a success, in part due to the high margin on the machines; AT&T sold the machine for $8,000 although their cost was approximately $4,000.[ citation needed ]
The next product was the 3B2 product line, which ranged from a 3B2/200 desktop unit, to a 3B2/1000 data center system. These machines were sold with System V Release 2, and later System V Release 3. The 3B2 was the reference platform for SVR3.
The 3B2 was the first desktop supermicrocomputer (1983) with a 32-bit microprocessor and UNIX. The model 300 and 400 series were uniprocessors. The 3B2 became the official "porting base" for UNIX System V Release 3. Later versions were the first to introduce UNIX asymmetric multiprocessing (3B2/600 Falcon) and nearly symmetrical multiprocessing (3B2/1000 Galactica). The Falcon won the highly touted US Air Force Office Automation contract, initially estimated at $1.7 billion, and the largest single computer contract the Federal government had awarded at that time. It was also the first supermicrocomputer to use a first-level cache memory based on virtual addresses instead of physical addresses, which made it 80% faster than the original requirements called for.
Because the 3B5/3B15 was a large minicomputer with only 1 CPU, it was sometimes referred to as "the body without a brain". The small 3B2 had a desktop design with (supposedly) less expansion capability, but had capacity available for up to 4 CPUs, it was thus also at times referred to as "the brain without a body".
The "Companion" was developed, the first "laptop" computer to have a 32-bit CPU and UNIX. The "Alexander" system measured about 14 inches on each side square, and about 5 inches high, featured a unique stacking I/O bus for up to 8 cards, featured compressed Unix filesystems on pluggable ROM cartridges like modern gaming consoles, and used the WE 32100 microprocessor running UNIX SVR3. Both were so outrageous and ahead of their time, they were never marketed.
On the large side, the 3B4000 (1986) was the first "snugly coupled" multiprocessor (the "network in a box"), containing the A-BUS which supported 16 large single-board computer (SBC) circuit panels, and featured the first SVR4 distributed UNIX kernel (codenamed "Apache", nothing to do with the open source project started in the 1990s). Although the SBCs did not share address space, the UNIX kernel was distributed across all SBCs in a single virtual image.
The StarServer E ("Enterprise" or SSE) was an Intel-based symmetric multiprocessor (SMP), introduced just after the Sequent system, making the SSE the world's second SMP UNIX system, and the first to run System V.4. It featured 4 Intel i486 CPUs. A later design (codenamed "Bigfoot") was to feature 10 Pentium CPUs, but this was never released because of the NCR deal.
AT&T-CS also introduced the world's first "PC&C" (personal computer and communication), the famous AT&T Safari laptop, the first to have a built-in modem and networking. This system used an Intel x86 microprocessor, and ran Microsoft software instead of Unix. AT&T-CS also marketed a line of desktop PCs, first using Olivetti as an OEM, later designing its own product line (codename Cascade) using OEM mainboards from Intel.
Other innovative designs which were never released included the "Starburst", a distributed Unix kernel message-passing multiprocessor with a fiber-optic switching core, and "Intercept", a unique High-Availability multiprocessor.
AT&T-CS also bought OEM systems from Tandem Computers and Pyramid Technology. The Tandem Integrity S2 was renamed the StarServer FT and sold only internally to other AT&T divisions. The Pyramid "System 7000" was a large symmetric multiprocessor, containing 12 CPUs, and saw its first large-scale application at the AT&T Universal Cards credit-card billing center, the first enterprise-scale replacement of mainframes by a UNIX server within AT&T. Both these systems used the MIPS R-series RISC microprocessors. After the WE 32000 microprocessors were canceled, the 3B2 follow-on (codenamed "Phoenix") was also to use a MIPS CPU. The entire MIPS-based product line was to be renamed the System 9000, and to feature "scalavailability" - from normal commercial availability (NCA) choices, to fault-tolerant (FT), to high performance SMP.
The System 9000 strategy was canceled when AT&T's board of directors decided to close down AT&T-CS, and buy the NCR Corporation, announced in 1991, and implemented January 1, 1992. NCR management tried to cancel all further development of AT&T-CS systems, though some refused to allow this for a few years, and backlash from AT&T Network Systems (later to be spun off as Lucent Technologies) precipitated a purge of NCR upper management by the AT&T Board. NCR had just developed and suddenly canceled its Motorola 88000-based systems, and then started the NCR 3000 series, developed using Intel x86 microprocessors. The AT&T StarServer E could still beat the comparably equipped NCR 3450 by 11% in the TPC Benchmark B test, and some of the SSE's 7 patented innovations were then adapted and retrofitted into the NCR 3000 design.
NCR was renamed AT&T Global Information Solutions (AT&T-GIS) in 1994, and some of the top NCR management was purged. The Naperville, IL operation provided LifeKeeper Fault Resilient System software (a failover high-availability software cluster product), the Distributed lock manager for Oracle Parallel Server, and the Vistium computer-telephony integrated (CTI) on-line hardware-assisted networked meeting product. Only about 400 employees remained in the Naperville location by the beginning of 1995. In the mid-1980s, there had been something like 30,000 employees associated with AT&T-CS, including marketing, customer support, factories, and development.
In 1994 a high powered team from AT&T Naperville transferred to NCR San Diego in the midst of developing a Micro Channel architecture based four channel SCSI adapter based on a custom ASIC. This host bus adapter went on to great success in NCR and served as a connection point for over a billion dollars worth of peripherals attached to NCR minicomputers and database servers.
On September 20, 1995, Bob Allen, AT&T Chairman of the Board and CEO, announced the "trivestiture" - the 3-way split of AT&T into the new service-oriented AT&T, a newly independent NCR, and the new telecom equipment business which would later be named Lucent Technologies. On December 15, the former AT&T-CS operations were shut down, signaling the end of AT&T's involvement in designing computer systems. Three AT&T-CS employees went into the new NCR, 25 stayed with AT&T, and the rest (about 200) went to Lucent. Many former AT&T-CS employees have been employed by Schaumburg, IL-based Motorola.
Alpha is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Alpha was designed to replace 32-bit VAX complex instruction set computers (CISC) and to be a highly competitive RISC processor for Unix workstations and similar markets.
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). The IC is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock-driven, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system.
The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer.
Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. There are many variations on this basic theme, and the definition of multiprocessing can vary with context, mostly as a function of how CPUs are defined.
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term workstation has been used loosely to refer to everything from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to a network, but the most common form refers to the class of hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer, DEC, HP, NeXT, and IBM which powered the 3D computer graphics revolution of the late 1990s.
Sequent Computer Systems was a computer company that designed and manufactured multiprocessing computer systems. They were among the pioneers in high-performance symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) open systems, innovating in both hardware and software.
Xeon is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded system markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same architecture as regular desktop-grade CPUs, but have advanced features such as support for ECC memory, higher core counts, more PCI Express lanes, support for larger amounts of RAM, larger cache memory and extra provision for enterprise-grade reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features responsible for handling hardware exceptions through the Machine Check Architecture. They are often capable of safely continuing execution where a normal processor cannot due to these extra RAS features, depending on the type and severity of the machine-check exception (MCE). Some also support multi-socket systems with two, four, or eight sockets through use of the Ultra Path Interconnect (UPI) bus.
The 3B series computers are a line of minicomputers made between the late 1970s and 1993 by AT&T Computer Systems' Western Electric subsidiary, for use with the company's UNIX operating system. The line primarily consists of the models 3B20, 3B5, 3B15, 3B2, and 3B4000. The series is notable for controlling a series of electronic switching systems for telecommunication, for general computing purposes, and for serving as the historical software porting base for commercial UNIX.
Aviion was a series of computers from Data General that were the company's main product from the late 1980s until the company's server products were discontinued in 2001. Earlier Aviion models used the Motorola 88000 CPU, but later models moved to an all-Intel solution when Motorola stopped work on the 88000 in the early 1990s. Some versions of these later Intel-based machines ran Windows NT, while higher-end machines ran the company's flavor of Unix, DG/UX.
Convergent Technologies, Inc., was an American computer company formed by a small group of people who left Intel Corporation and Xerox PARC in 1979. Among the founders were CEO Allen Michels, VP Engineering Bob Garrow, head of marketing Kal Hubler, and operating system architect Ben Wegbreit. Convergent was primarily an OEM vendor with their computers resold by other manufacturers such as ADP, AT&T, Burroughs, Four-Phase Systems, Gould, Mohawk, Monroe Data Systems, NCR, and Prime. The company was purchased by Unisys in 1988.
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. was an American software company, based in Santa Cruz, California, that was best known for selling three Unix operating system variants for Intel x86 processors: Xenix, SCO UNIX, and UnixWare.
UnixWare is a Unix operating system. It was originally released by Univel, a jointly owned venture of AT&T's Unix System Laboratories (USL) and Novell. It was then taken over by Novell. Via Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), it went on to Caldera Systems, Caldera International, and The SCO Group before it was sold to UnXis. UnixWare is typically deployed as a server rather than a desktop. Binary distributions of UnixWare are available for x86 architecture computers. UnixWare is primarily marketed as a server operating system.
Unix System V is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. System V Release 4 (SVR4) was commercially the most successful version, being the result of an effort, marketed as Unix System Unification, which solicited the collaboration of the major Unix vendors. It was the source of several common commercial Unix features. System V is sometimes abbreviated to SysV.
Slot 2 refers to the physical and electrical specification for the 330-lead Single Edge Contact Cartridge used by Intel's Pentium II Xeon and Pentium III Xeon.
Xinuos OpenServer, previously SCO UNIX and SCO Open Desktop, is a closed source computer operating system developed by Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), later acquired by SCO Group, and now owned by Xinuos. Early versions of OpenServer were based on UNIX System V, while the later OpenServer 10 is based on FreeBSD 10.
A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions but the single processor can run instructions on separate cores at the same time, increasing overall speed for programs that support multithreading or other parallel computing techniques. Manufacturers typically integrate the cores onto a single integrated circuit die or onto multiple dies in a single chip package. The microprocessors currently used in almost all personal computers are multi-core.
Microport Systems (1985–2002) was a software development group that pioneered a new approach towards software ports that dramatically reduced development costs and, consequently, the price charged for UNIX. Microport created the first ports of AT&T's UNIX System V for the IBM 286 and 386 personal computers, as well as IBM's PS/2 systems. Microport was critical to enabling the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to port its GNU C compiler (gcc) and associated utilities, onto the x86 architecture by donating a complete 386 development system to the Richard Stallman-led group. Microport also played a key role in Kevin Mitnick's first arrest, after he broke into the internal computer networks of both Microport and The Santa Cruz Operation.
The Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is a family of Intel's single-chip chipsets, first introduced in 2009. It is the successor to the Intel Hub Architecture, which used two chips–a northbridge and southbridge, and first appeared in the Intel 5 Series.
The ICL DRS was a range of departmental computers from International Computers Limited (ICL). Standing originally for Distributed Resource System, the full name was later dropped in favour of the abbreviation.
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. announced yesterday that it will buy up to a 20 percent stake in Sun Microsystems Inc., a Silicon Valley-based maker of powerful small computers known as workstations.