[Simh] Fw: Fw: Cutler Unix

[david.d.miller at att.net]

We had two (possibly 3) 11/45s for our application so I guess my memory isn't so bad. :)

David.

----- Forwarded Message -----
>From: Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com>
>To: david.d.miller at att.net 
>Cc: "simh at trailing-edge.com" <simh at trailing-edge.com> 
>Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 7:54 PM
>Subject: Re: [Simh] Fw: Cutler Unix
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>below.. 
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>On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 9:27 PM, <david.d.miller at att.net> wrote:
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>In the mid-70s I was working at Sylvania WDL.  We were looking for a real-time OS for a PDP 11/45.  Nothing at DEC.  We checked with AT&T for UNIX and they wanted $40K (I was told).  Management said, "no way" and I was assigned the task.  I wrote a separated I&D-space (full memory) OS for our application, which incidentally was written in Pascal. But that's another story.
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>>David.
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>If it was mid-70's (i.e. 6th or 7th edition) the commercial license was $20K for the first CPU and $7K for the second and $5 for each additional CPU.  $100 was the educational license fee and was to defray the cost of writing a tape - but AT&T had to make the IP available as part of the consent decree.  IIRC: Even the $100 could be waved it you brought a couple of RK05s to MH and Ken or Dennis copies the disk.  i.e. that how some of the universities got  the bits originally as students brought them back with them.
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>The fees for basic UNIX did not go up to $40k for the first CPU until post System III - it may have been as late as System V.  But by then there were all sort of other fees, such as the $150K redistribution license fee which was on top of the first CPU.
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>Looking back on it, one of the few times I was ever in a room with Willy G was during the negotiations @ Ricki's Hyatt in Palo Alto that would cause AT&T to create the System III license and the first redistribution license.   All the majors firms in the room had no problem with $1.5K per CPU when the cost of a VAX or HP3000 was $250K-$500K or more for IBM.   The firms developing what were later be called "personal workstations" envisioned a $10K-$20K price point and were willing to settle for about $500 a copy.   Gates wants to pay $25 for what would be the Xenix license for a PC/AT which then cost about $3.5K-5K retail, but he promised Al Arms that he would sell "millions."    I remember him turning to the room and saying (whining actually) - "You guys don't get it.  The only thing that matters in the software business is volume."
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>Sad truth - he was right.
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>Clem
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