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173:, which depended on PDP-10s to run its online service and was eager to move to newer but fully compatible systems. CompuServe's demand for the computers outpaced Systems Concepts' ability to produce them, so CompuServe licensed the design and built SC-designed computers itself. Other companies that purchased the SC-30 machines included
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Later, Systems
Concepts attempted to produce a compatible replacement for the DEC PDP-10 computers. "Mars" was the code name for a family of PDP-10-compatible computers built by Systems Concepts, including the initial SC-30M, the smaller SC-25, and the slower SC-20. These machines were marvels of
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by early fall. However, people at
Systems Concepts were better at designing machines than at mass-producing or selling them; the company continually improved the design, but lost credibility as delivery dates continued to slip. They also overpriced; believing they were competing with the KL10 and
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F-1, they were physically smaller and consumed less power than the much slower DEC KS10 or Foonly F-2, F-3, or F-4 machines. They were also completely compatible with the DEC KL10, and ran all KL10 binaries (including the
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in 1983, Systems
Concepts hoped to sell their machine to customers with a software investment in PDP-10s. Their spring 1984 announcement generated excitement in the PDP-10 world.
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SC later designed the SC-40, released in 1993, a faster follow-on to the SC-30M and SC-25. It can perform up to 8 times as fast as a DEC KL-10, and it also supports more
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building workstations with comparable power at a fraction of the price. By the time SC shipped the first SC-30M to
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Systems
Concepts remained in business, having changed its name to the SC Group when it moved from
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slot and ran cellular automata rules at a 60 Hz update rate. Toffoli provided
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in late 1985, most customers had already abandoned the PDP-10, usually for
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In 1985, the company contracted to engineer and produce a PC-based
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engineering design; although not much slower than the unique
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Other companies that produced PDP-10 compatible computers:
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drives designed for use with the channel interfaces of
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devices. These systems were also used at CompuServe.
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144:was running on the Mars by the summer of 1984, and
169:systems. Nevertheless, a number were purchased by
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303:Description of SC-40 at SC Group website
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314:This article is based in part on the
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213:system for
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60:Mike Levitt
326:Categories
264:References
234:California
171:CompuServe
104:series of
40:Technology
284:August 6,
106:computers
81:(now the
244:See also
151:VAX 8600
95:hardware
83:SC Group
72:Hardware
69:Products
37:Computer
31:Industry
305:at the
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142:TOPS-10
48:Founder
253:Foonly
238:Nevada
223:IBM PC
175:Telmar
126:Foonly
102:PDP-10
227:Forth
219:CAM-6
286:2014
167:Unix
114:tape
112:and
110:disk
89:and
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236:to
165:or
163:VMS
99:DEC
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
