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Aucbvax.2563 fa.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!GEOFF@SRI-CSL Fri Aug 7 20:06:51 1981 Unix Rumor Mill via decvax!duke!unc!smb via Info-Micro. From: the.tty.of.Geoffrey.S.Goodfellow at SRI-CSL

Mail-From: ARPANET host MIT-ML rcvd at 7-Aug-81 1018-PDT Date: 6 Aug 1981 16:38:43-PDT From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley

In real life: Steven M. Bellovin, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill To: info-micro

The following news and speculations appeared in the July 27 issue of "Information Systems News"....

* Western Electric is currently investigating the release of their UNIX/370 system. [This system runs "with" TSS/370 in some fashion.]

* Ken Thompson says that IBM has an internal version of UNIX running on the Series 1. IBM declined comment, but noted that IBM had released to Western Electric some Series 1 code to permit it to act as a communications front-end to the UNIX/370 system. [This gets around the full/half-duplex problem.]

* Western Electric will probably release "Writer's Workbench" soon, according to sources. WE admits that they're investigating it.

* IBM has apparently contracted with Interactive Systems Corp. to develop a UNIX for the 4300 series. IBM refused to comment, and ISC executive vice president Robert Anderson said that "he preferred not to say" anything at this time. Sources said IBM had chosen to use a third party for developing UNIX on its hardware to avoid licensing and patent problems with WE in the future.

* TI is investigating UNIX for its busyness machines.

* Plexus Computers will be releasing a 16-bit machine with UNIX by the end of August, for about $50K, according to the company.

* Thompson says that Honeywell has UNIX running on its Level 6 computers; they deny it.

* Thompson also said that UNIX is a good system for large machines, and that Bell Labs and Universities have it running on every popular computer system except for Data General equipment.

* Michael Bourk at SRI predicted that within the next several years Xerox Parc will develop a UNIX-like office automation system that will be for the "computer illiterate". Xerox Parc denied this.

* Jean Yates, senior market analyst for Gnostic Concepts, estimates that by 1986, the market for UNIX-based hardware and software will be $9 billion.

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