By: Stefan Mochnacki

Stefan Mochnacki — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 09:43:46 +0000

Good to see an article about the DeskPro 386, because it is just as important as the original IBM PC and the original Compaq Portable. It guaranteed that the PC ISA environment would remain open as it evolved into the fully general-purpose 32-bit (and later 64-bit) x86 architecture. It broke IBM’s attempt to regain control, and allowed the PC industry to continue its explosive growth. It took about seven years, however, for software to become fully capable of exploiting it (Windows NT and Linux). Sun made a huge error in not adopting the ISA architecture for its 386i in 1988, because its SunOS software would, with more refinement, have become the standard instead of Microsoft Windows. The 386i was canned after a year, and Sun went off into the smaller but high profit margin technical workstation and server market with SPARC and Solaris. Which was unfortunate, because Sun were years ahead of Microsoft, and computing would have been much more advanced today if everyone were on a Unix-based OS today. And let’s not forget, SunOS ran MS-DOS software very well, too, in multiple windows! Stock brokers loved the 386i.

By: Dave Farquhar

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 00:08:45 +0000

In reply to kovachm. Yes indeed. Opposite of Tramiel in nearly every possible way.

By: kovachm

kovachm — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 19:23:09 +0000

hehe… “IBM had a policy of not competing with itself.” – completely opposite to Jack Tramiel mantra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAPw8clX8jE

Comments on: Compaq Deskpro 386

By: Stefan Mochnacki

By: Dave Farquhar

By: kovachm