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Talk:Honeywell Level 6

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Citation for DPS6 Plus Unix Coprocessor rejected by Wikipedia site blacklist. There is however no comparable citation available. <ref>{{cite news|title=Honeywell Bull Supports Unix On DPS 6 Plus Using 80386|url=http://www.cbronline.com/news/honeywell_bull_supports_unix_on_dps_6_plus_using_80386 |accessdate=December 20, 2014|work=Computer Business Review|date=September 26, 1988}}</ref>

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PICK

@Zatsugaku: Citation on PICK? Was it actually firmware? Peter Flass (talk) 23:13, 26 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Peter Flass: I was just trying to briefly include what is described on the Pick page under section "Derivative and Related Products", "Ultimate". If you think that description is incorrect, or if I have not summarized it accurately, please correct it or remove that detail. It wouldn't surprise me if it was merely mostly in ROM. A ROM OS was used for cost, quick boot, and stability.
I've been adding some misc "ancient history" on a few computing pages and as I had personal knowledge of Pick running on a DPS6 at an HQ of a regional grocery store chain in about 1985, I looked at the Pick operating system page to see if it mentions running on the Level 6, and it does. Since that page linked to the Level 6 page, I thought it would be appropriate to make it bi-directional. BTW, if you are an old HIS person you might be interested in some Talk comments I recently made on the Columbia Data Products page. Sidenote, Pick was typically not capitalized because it is named after Richard Pick (who really deserves his own page; see ref to his LA Times Obit on the Pick page). Zatsugaku (talk) 00:26, 27 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
That’s fine, I just wondered if you had a citation handy. I’m not a Honeywell person, I’m just interested in older computers. Peter Flass (talk) 14:28, 27 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Attempt to enter the LAN/file server market

Here is another piece of interesting history that I would like to add to the Level 6 page but for which I don't at present have any supporting references. Perhaps a former HIS employee could provide one. At the time, I had direct knowledge of the project and a full copy of the draft documentation.

In 1985-86, HIS sought to develop a Corvus Systems-compatible local area networking (LAN) card for their Level 6 systems with the goal of making their platform function as full-featured file, print, backup, and communications server to directly support PCs and Macs. This project was called “Fast Track”. HIS also sought to release a repository for word processing documents standardized on IBM’s DCA Revisable Format (RFT) with bidirectional conversion between the growing list of desktop word processing formats. The goal of the repository was to bridge Honeywell's proprietary time-share word processing with desktop PCs and applications.

The project advanced to the point of an operating dual-port (twisted-pair) networking card and a DOS application that could request files on the Level 6 and transfer them with check-out/in. The Level 6 would handle WP file format conversions. However, the system didn’t achieve direct access of a client/PC to the Level 6 file system, and thus simple tasks such as opening a database (without transferring it) was not possible. After unsuccessfully seeking an internal pilot deployment to sustain the project, it was shut down.

While in that time-frame Corvus products appeared to have a strong market potential because its simple network design and support for both PCs and Macs, its limitations meant it was soon outclassed by competitors such as Novell. Had the Fast Track interface allowed a Level 6 to function as a full-featured file server, it might have altered the early corporate LAN marketplace that was already comfortable with centrally budgeted and administered minicomputers. (A major dynamic of this era was the downsizing and decentralization of computing to departments re PCs, which also widely resulted in ad hoc standards and processes.) It is also worth noting that the premise of routine bi-directional conversion between file formats of even modestly complex, shared documents was highly problematic in that era. Zatsugaku (talk) 15:44, 31 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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