IBM

I saw this PowerSeries SuperClient 604 based system in my October 1995 BYTE. Internet searches and eBay searches turn up nothing. Did this system have an alternate name? Any background?

Could it be a Power Series 830 or 850? I couldn't find a ton of details, but the Wikipedia article seems to indicate they're the PC counterparts of the Model 7248 RS/6000. There's some additional detail in the article about the PowerPC version of OS/2 as well, which I didn't even know existed.

https://tecnopolis.ca/aixtp/tpi850an.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_Series#PC_Power_Series
http://ps-2.kev009.com/michaln/history/os2ppc/index.html

Technically, it didn't. There are lots of arguments over exactly how far it got in development, but in the end it didn't matter because IBM never released it.

I wonder exactly how many people actually ran Solaris 2.5.1 on PPC. Counting engineers at Sun and IBM, the total probably made it into at least three digits. What are the odds the total made it into four? Five?

ClassicHasClass wrote: ... in the end it didn't matter because IBM never released it.

Actually, they did, to a certain extent :

http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os2-history ... c-edition/

It might have become an interesting operating system if IBM hadn't been in such disarray at the time ...

josehill wrote: I wonder exactly how many people actually ran Solaris 2.5.1 on PPC. Counting engineers at Sun and IBM, the total probably made it into at least three digits. What are the odds the total made it into four? Five?

michaln wrote: While we’re off topic, I also ran Solaris 2.5.1 on a Power Series 440.

also ... (with screenies)

http://www.os2museum.com/wp/pc-unix-his ... 1-for-x86/

Look through the comments on the page I linked - many interesting remarks and it may answer the "Super Client" question :

"The PC 700 Super Client looks just like a PC 750 desktop of the era, the one with the swappable PCI/ISA and PCI/MC risers. In fact, I wonder if there’s any difference, at all. In *fact*, I wonder if this wasn’t just an ad campaign for the existing hardware to take advantage of ‘client/server’ being THE buzzword of the time."

"yes, “super client” was just a fancy name for a desktop PC…"

(A little background : Michal Nekasek of the os2museum was an early programmer in the Freetype project. Also Open Watcom. Nice guy and very knowledgeable.)

n1mjb wrote: Could it be a Power Series 830 or 850? I couldn't find a ton of details, but the Wikipedia article seems to indicate they're the PC counterparts of the Model 7248 RS/6000.

Yeah, I think that's it. Just one of IBM's PReP machines. I found a two page ad in InfoWorld , too.

After looking into this quite a bit, my conclusion is that we are looking at a system that was never shipped. The Power Series 800 Super Client. I found another ad with the same image, but an actual model number (attached).

The "PC" versions of the rs/6000 Power boxes, aka "SuperClient", were cancelled before this design made it out in the market.

http://www.os2voice.org/vnl/past_issues ... newsf5.htm

As per the link above, apparently there are/were only four of these systems in existence.

The closest, from a design perspective, is the 43p. But even this does not have that grid vent shown in the ad, to the lower left of the enclosure (while upright). It would be cool to mod one into the SuperClient that never was

This is one of the reasons why I still treasure my physical collection of BYTE magazines. Those old issues always turn up something interesting...

[THE ABOVE INFO IS INCORRECT. The 800 series, including the 850, did indeed ship. Please see my post below with correct info. Rare, but did exist.]

The 43p:

josehill wrote:

n1mjb wrote: Could it be a Power Series 830 or 850? I couldn't find a ton of details, but the Wikipedia article seems to indicate they're the PC counterparts of the Model 7248 RS/6000.

Yeah, I think that's it. Just one of IBM's PReP machines. I found a two page ad in InfoWorld , too.

Yes, we turned up the same ad and yes, its the 850. Don't believe it ever shipped.

Dang. I was wrong. It did ship. This lab had five of them:

http://users.wfu.edu/yipcw/WFUcmp98/content/phy.html