From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Jul 6 15:24:54 1995 Return-Path: hackers-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id PAA05527 for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 6 Jul 1995 15:24:54 -0700 Received: from cabri.obs-besancon.fr (cabri.obs-besancon.fr [193.52.184.3]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with SMTP id PAA05514 for ; Thu, 6 Jul 1995 15:24:52 -0700 Received: by cabri.obs-besancon.fr (5.57/Ultrix3.0-C) id AA28093; Fri, 7 Jul 95 00:27:06 +0100 Date: Fri, 7 Jul 95 00:27:06 +0100 Message-Id: <9507062327.AA28093@cabri.obs-besancon.fr> From: Jean-Marc Zucconi To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: FYI: JAPAN COMPUTER CORPORATION PORTS BSD BERKELEY TO PREP X-Mailer: Emacs Sender: hackers-owner@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk ------- Start of forwarded message ------- JAPAN COMPUTER CORPORATION PORTS BSD BERKELEY TO PREP (July 3rd 1995) Japan Computer Corporation launches its first PReP-compliant desktop this month, based on technology from FirePower. It also reports that it has signed parallel processing technology from Groupe Bull plus a further deal with Canon for technology, and possible future sales of Canon's laptop machines. But perhaps the most notable aspect of the announcement is the inclusion of a PReP-compatible version of the 4.4 BSD Lite freeware Unix. This will be bundled as a standard part of the system - the other PReP operating systems will also be available, but will cost extra. Whether JCC will make its BSD implementation available to other vendors is unclear at the moment. The Japanese PC market is fragmented compared to much of the rest of the world and Microsoft has failed to secure the grip that it has obtained elsewhere. Much of this is due to the alphabetical problems which beset the original DOS market. JCC says that one of the main reasons it decided to base its operating system strategy on BSDLite is a perceived English-centric attitude among the other OS providers. Basically, the company is sick of having to wait for local-language versions of the other PReP operating systems. The company reckons that it has got at least 100 public domain software packages running on the Unix platform. These include the Mosaic web browser, a WWW creation package, the LaTex text editor and X11 release 5. The basic machines themselves will look very familiar to anyone who has looked at Firepower's desktop systems. The 'Crusader 3e' machine is based upon a 100MHz 603e, the 'Crusader 604' on a 100MHz 604. No pricing was available as we went to press. The company says that it also looking at taking FirePower's dual-processor machines. Future plans are a little hazy, but the technology agreement with Bull suggests the company will look at the SMP server space; it will be interesting to see whether it attempts to produce an SMP version of BSD Unix, or whether it will plump for AIX. Tokyo-based Japan Computer Corp was founded in 1977, has a yearly turnover of around 3000 million Yen and until now has mainly been involved in designing SPARC-based workstations and network servers. (c) PowerPC News - free by mailing add@power.globalnews.com ------- End of forwarded message ------- _____________________________________________________________________________ Jean-Marc Zucconi Observatoire de Besancon F 25010 Besancon cedex PGP Key: finger jmz@cabri.obs-besancon.fr =============================================================================