From: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net   
      
   In article ,   
   Rich Alderson   wrote:   
   >cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) writes:   
   >   
   >> [Sun's] initial success was because they built the computer that   
   >> they themselves wanted to use, and came up with a computer a   
   >> bunch of other people wanted to use, too.  It was a joy to use a   
   >> Sun workstation at the time.  But then they stopped doing that.   
   >   
   >Remember that the original SUN-1 board was designed by Andy Bechtolsheim from   
   a   
   >specification given to him by Ralph Gorin, director of the Stanford academic   
   >computing facility (LOTS), who envisioned a 4M system (1M memory, 1MIPS, 1M   
   >pixels on the screen, 1Mbps network, based on the first Ethernet at PARC).   
   >   
   >SUN stood for "Stanford University Network"...   
   >   
   >The same board was used in the original routers and terminal interface   
   >processors (TIPs) on the Stanford network, designed by Len Bosack of Cisco and   
   >XKL fame.   
   >   
   >Khosla and Bechtolsheim, et al., didn't "build the computer they wanted to   
   use",   
   >they built the one they thought would make money when they took the design   
   from   
   >Stanford.   
      
   Khosla was out within what, 4 or 5 years?  And he wasn't an   
   engineer.   
      
   The "building the computer they wanted to use" bit comes   
   first-hand from engineers with single-digit Sun employee   
   numbers.  It wasn't just the hardware, but the software as well,   
   of course.   
      
   	- Dan C.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)