Actually Xerox wasn't so foolish. They never intended to be a "computer" company. They were simply trying to figure out the next evolution in office technology. If a paperless office was in the cards, they didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of worthless document processing equipment and no prospects. When the PARC people rolled in a "computer" for the executives and told them that they would be able to sell them for about 25,000 dollars a pop, well, you can imagaine Xerox's reaction. Factor in that there weren't exactly a lot of compelling applications for a machine like that yet. Not in mainframe, pre-spreadsheet days. For a good less-than-detailed history, check out Cringley's "Accidental Empires". A good read for a lot of other reasons as well.
sounds from the press release like you need a smp capable OS to use the riser card. a white paper or some more specs would be nice. would be a nice way to get a cheap smp server up.
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Actually Xerox wasn't so foolish. They never intended to be a "computer" company. They were simply trying to figure out the next evolution in office technology. If a paperless office was in the cards, they didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of worthless document processing equipment and no prospects. When the PARC people rolled in a "computer" for the executives and told them that they would be able to sell them for about 25,000 dollars a pop, well, you can imagaine Xerox's reaction. Factor in that there weren't exactly a lot of compelling applications for a machine like that yet. Not in mainframe, pre-spreadsheet days. For a good less-than-detailed history, check out Cringley's "Accidental Empires". A good read for a lot of other reasons as well.
sounds from the press release like you need a smp capable OS to use the riser card. a white paper or some more specs would be nice. would be a nice way to get a cheap smp server up.