Talk:Prime Computer/Archives/2014

Obsolete? Pishposh, old chap, pishposh!

An editor, with this edit added this to the body of the article (following "After a series of evolutions and acquisitions this product is now an obsolete part of the Rocket U2 software suite") the following, which belongs on a talk page not in the body of an article, so I'm moving it here:

"Obsolete? My dear fellow! I think not. A brief observation suffices to show, to the discerning gentleman, that Pick-like systems (UniData from Rocket) run nearly one thousand colleges' ERP systems in the Former Colonies, and every Lowe's emporium to which one gives custom, and many other POS & ERP systems to this very day, with brisk and admirable efficiency -- everything All Sir Garnet, so to speak. I am unsure of the ways of what you call a 'Wiki', so I am not sure that this the preferred way to initiate a considered debate on the matter. But while I understand and appreciate your opinion on this matter, I hope, in my own modest way, that my opinion will also find some sympathetic ears here. Let us hope that a lively and fruitful discussion ensues!"

I don't have an opinion on the merits of the case, just that it doesn't belong in the article itself. Herostratus (talk) 00:43, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Looking at the material, I think the gentleman was objecting to Pick being described as obsolete; the intent was to describe something else as obsolete, but it wasn't entirely clear, so I clarified, so Bob's your uncle I think. Herostratus (talk) 03:13, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Specialised Software Section

I have created this section since I was in the UK the marketing manager for Prime's OAS and Prime Information Connection. There are citations needed, and I will see what I can achieve with those over time.

Fiddle Faddle 21:27, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Prime Computer's significance in the development of the PC market

I came to this article hoping to get a sense of Prime Computer's significance in the development of the PC market, but the article currently provides only a series of product descriptions with no sense of the big picture. I cannot provide that big picture but just wanted to ask that someone else give it a shot! Thanks. Andropod (talk) 00:18, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

An answer to that enquiry.

Users worked on dumb video display terminals connected to Prime's minicomputer-based timesharing systems. All the services such users needed - storage of programs and data, computing, communications, etc. - were handled by the Prime timesharing system.

A decade later, when cheap and powerful 16-bit and 32-bit microprocessors became available - from Intel, Motorola and others - it was possible to use them to build PCs (Personal Computers) to provide all those services locally to each user on his or her own personal system.

Prime was not involved much, if at all, in the development of PCs because, like all the other minicomputer manufacturers - DEC, Data General, etc. - Prime concentrated on giving users local computing power in the form of powerful minicomputer-based timesharing systems as an attractive alternative to having to buy time on mainframe computer systems.

Others may be able to add more information as to any significance which Prime Computer may have had in the development of the PC market. Anameisbutaname. 10:54, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

They made some 8088 IBM-architecture PC-DOS machines. Probably sold only or almost only to Prime shops running PRIMOS systems. The power supply, rather than being enclosed in a metal box, was on a board which went into a slot like other expansion boards. Opening the case when the machine was plugged in was quite dangerous. IIRC there was some kind of interlock, or maybe only a latch, designed to discourage this, but it was easily defeated. Herostratus (talk) 19:40, 15 February 2014 (UTC)