[LispM-Hackers] Updated web page

[ford@objs.com]

Paolo Amoroso wrote:

> On 24 Dec 2001 15:30:16 -0900, James A. Crippen wrote:
>
> > Duly noted.  I'm making the changes to the page presently.  Do you
> > happen to know what year the license to LMI technology was obtained
> > in?  That and what year TI bought the Nu Machine/NuBus?  Dates would
>
> The book:
>
>   "The Brain Makers - The Quest for Machines that Think"
>   Harvey Newquist
>   SAMS Publishing, 1994
>   ISBN 0-672-30412-0
>
> provides extensive details on LispM vendors and, more generally, on the AI
> business. It also covers the LMI/TI deal you refer to. The book is a
> fascinating reading, but it lacks technical details. I bought a used copy
> from Amazon for 23$ on July 2000.
>
> If I recall correctly, major facts about AI vendors are also summarized in
> the thesis:
>
>   "If It Works, It's Not AI"
>
> http://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~moeller/symbolics-info/ai-business.pdf
>
> Paolo

Interesting.  There is at least one error, however, in what I read

> However, by the end of 1984, TI was tired of dealing with LMI's manufacturing problems and decided to build its own machines. They licensed the Lisp design from LMI (who had little choice but to agree to the deal).

This was all part of the same deal in 1983.  Development of the Explorer started immediately upon inking of that deal in '83, and we demoed fully-operational prototypes at AAAI in Aug, '84 in Austin.  We also announced the MIT deal at AAAI.  TI's motivation from the beginnng was to be in the AI business, not to avoid LMI manufacturing problems.  Before LMI / Western Digital deal was struck, we were developing our own  "advanced workstation", which would been a competitor to Sun and Apollo, running Unix.  I was porting  Spice Lisp (Guy Steele's progenitor to Common Lisp) to Unix, which was intended to be the core of a "Lisp Workstation" version of that product, when the deal was announced.  In hindsight, the original plan might have worked out better.  We were all pretty pissed about the change in plans, but got into it after a bit.

Steve