[rescue] The Soul of that old Machine

[Dave McGuire]

On 11/24/21 7:55 PM, Mike Katz wrote:
> I beg to differ.B  Data General was not a "fork" from Digital Equipment
> Corporation but rather started by a group of engineers who were working
> on a 16 bit replacement for the PDP-8 and left DEC and formed Data
> General when the project, code named PDP-X, was cancelled.
> 
> To quote wikipedia: "This prompted several of the engineers from the
> PDP-X program to leave DEC and form Data General
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General>. The next year they
> introduced the 16-bit Data General Nova
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Nova>.^[6]
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11#cite_note-6> The Nova was a major
> success, selling tens of thousands of units and launching what would
> become one of DEC's major competitors through the 1970s and 1980s"
> 
> Data general sold nearly 100,000 16 bit computers whereas DEC sold
> nearly 600,000 PDP-11's.

   The history of DG is well-known; I think the term "fork" was just 
applied loosely here.  But I do think it's fair.  It wasn't a corporate 
spin-off, but the only real difference is in the paperwork, which nobody 
cares about but the suits anyway.

               -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA