Little Blue, a non-PC Compatible TL

[xavthewhovian]

Little Blue, a non-PC Compatible TL
This is an idea which came to me last night, and I would like some feedback on it.
Part the first: prior to POD
In 1977, three little boxes changed the face of the electronics industry forevermore. These three machines, the Commodore PET, Apple ][ and TRS-80 home microcomputers, these three metal boxes, began a revolution in the way we people processed information for the rest of time. Finally the power of a computer was within reach of the common man (provided they pay the high price)

Skip forward to 1981 and the home micro market had turned from a rather niche market into a proper industry, and of course the IBM corporation wanted in on it.

The International Business Machines Corporation, founded june 1911, was at the time one of the top companies in the mainframe computer industry ,and as such, they decided to create a new home computer, known as their personal computer, or PC.

This was, and still is, considered to be one of the greatest mistakes ever made by a major technology company. Put lightly, it was a commercial flop. Less than 5,000 units had shipped by the end of 1981, with next to no demand for it compared to more capable machines like the Commodore VIC- 20 or TRS-80 Color Computer. It appeared that the 1980s were to be a tough decade for IBM.*

*in case you didn't realize, this is the POD.

 

[xavthewhovian]

Basically, what I want to do with this is create a TL where the PC standard doesn't take off as a platform, and instead the home micro market stays as diverse as it was in the 80s and early 90s.

 

[Livius wannabe]

This was, and still is, considered to be one of the greatest mistakes ever made by a major technology company. Put lightly, it was a commercial flop. Less than 5,000 units had shipped by the end of 1981,
with next to no demand for it compared to more capable machines like the Commodore VIC- 20 or TRS-80 Color Computer. It appeared that the 1980s were to be a tough decade for IBM.*

To be "less capable than a VIC-20" IBM would have to produce a ZX-80 like machine.
But apart from that, what prevents them from trying again? They have deep pockets.

Basically, what I want to do with this is create a TL where the PC standard doesn't take off as a platform, and instead the home micro market stays as diverse as it was in the 80s and early 90s.

So you want to preserve the Cambrian phase forever? It's not possible, some species would get on top, sooner or later.

 

[markus meecham]

tech timelines rock.
watched.

 

[xavthewhovian]

To be "less capable than a VIC-20" IBM would have to produce a ZX-80 like machine.
But apart from that, what prevents them from trying again? They have deep pockets.

The Reason I placed this in was because TTL, IBM markets the machine far more as a home computer than as a business machine, like the PCjr OTL. The 'less capable' part came from The PC having the same specs as OTL, but aimed for a home market. The high price simply didn't excuse the fact that it was less audiovisually advanced. Now, I can't come up with an excuse for why IBM would market the PC this way, but I'm merely using this plot device as an ends to a means.

Also, IBM might not be leaving the market yet... maybe Big Blue is just biding it's time

 

[markus meecham]

The Reason I placed this in was because TTL, IBM markets the machine far more as a home computer than as a business machine, like the PCjr OTL. The 'less capable' part came from The PC having the same specs as OTL, but aimed for a home market. The high price simply didn't excuse the fact that it was less audiovisually advanced. Now, I can't come up with an excuse for why IBM would market the PC this way, but I'm merely using this plot device as an ends to a means.

Also, IBM might not be leaving the market yet... maybe Big Blue is just biding it's time

Excuse? it's 1977, both the advertising guys and the execs thought this was *snort* A REALLY AWESOME IDEA FUCK YEAH LET'S DO IT

 

[xavthewhovian]

Excuse? it's 1977, both the advertising guys and the exects thought this was *snort* A REALLY AWESOME IDEA FUCK YEAH LET'S DO IT

fair enough.

 

[Livius wannabe]

The Reason I placed this in was because TTL, IBM markets the machine far more as a home computer than as a business machine, like the PCjr OTL. The 'less capable' part came from The PC having the same specs as OTL, but aimed for a home market. The high price simply didn't excuse the fact that it was less audiovisually advanced. Now, I can't come up with an excuse for why IBM would market the PC this way, but I'm merely using this plot device as an ends to a means.

Also, IBM might not be leaving the market yet... maybe Big Blue is just biding it's time

Ok, let's think alternatives.
In the professional field, I think CP/M has the best chances. It's relatively standardised and it's not toyish or too niche like most home computers. It just needs someone with enough financial weight to push it into defining a hardware baseline thus creating sufficient mass to attract software developers.

Another option could be the Olivetti M-20. The firm was large at the time (it used to own Acorn for a period), but not large enough to go alone. Still, it could join forces with other manufacturers and form a consortium.

 

[xavthewhovian]

Part 2 should be coming soon! It'll focus on the Japanese market circa '84, with the PC-88 standard (based on the american PC standard) never begins. Part 3 should be coming sometime, jumping to the later 80's, and there'll be something big on the way. Even though it's only been a couple of days since the first post, I'm glad to see people enjoying it so much.

 

[Nivek]

! It'll focus on the Japanese market circa '84, with the PC-88 standard (based on the american PC standard) never begins

It is a massive butterfly in computer and videogame market...and with that butterfly wonder if nintendo would try release the famicom based microcomputer as they planned but backed down because pc-88

 

[xavthewhovian]

famicom based microcomputer

You'll just have to wait and see...

 

[Nivek]

You'll just have to wait and see...

That will be pretty interesting

 

[ennobee]

On a side note, as far as I remember it, what made the PC so ubiquitous was not so much the computer itself, but the fact that IBM licensed out their PC structure to pretty much every one interested. Thus even if IBM would loose money on its own PC's, some other company with leaner production costs and better marketing skills could still sell their own PC-compatible devices and make a profit...

 

[xavthewhovian]

On a side note, as far as I remember it, what made the PC so ubiquitous was not so much the computer itself, but the fact that IBM licensed out their PC structure to pretty much every one interested. Thus even if IBM would loose money on its own PC's, some other company with leaner production costs and better marketing skills could still sell their own PC-compatible devices and make a profit...

It's not that IBM licensed the structure, they just used off the shelf components, so anyone could copy the BIOS and create a compatible system. At least, that's how it happened OTL. TTL, IBM bases it's architecture off of it's failed model 5100 luggable from the mid-'70s, meaning it was much harder to copy.

 

[MichaelWest]

I will share some back story that might get you an interesting point of departure. IBM developed the PC in part because its business customers wanted the next new thing and in many ways the PC was just part of the Mainframe structure, a terminal on a desk still reliant upon the Mainframe, another business machine. What gets interesting is the operating system. IBM feared another anti-trust suit and had to choose hardware or software, it being IBM felt hardware was more important to own and created the software it did not own to be defensible in an anti-trust suit, proving IBM was not another monopoly in PCs too. As we know the box is fungible and the software became where the money was at, so you could have IBM avoid the PC altogether and thus not create a market for DOS, or have IBM more confident that it will survive the lawsuit and fully own the PC, hardware and software, leaving the others outside its business oriented market. Either could leave the personal (home) computing industry far less clone and far more open to a different standard.

 

[xavthewhovian]

Part II, The First Snowballs of the Avalanche
Kyoto, Japan
November, 1983

The Nintendo Company of Japan had just launched it's Family Computer, or Famicom, 4 months earlier, and it despite slow initial sales, the system was starting to sell well. Already multiple peripherals were under development, including a disk drive for the system, though that was going to take a while. Executives at the company were pleased with the performance of the system, but just had one question: if it was a computer, how could the system stack up against American machines like the Commodore 64 or TRS-80 Color Computer 2? Though the Famicom was on par with the machines in most respects, it lacked many of the thing the other computers had to offer, such as a proper keyboard, BASIC programming language support, and a non-cartridge storage medium. Now, Nintendo executives realized, was the time to act, and to bring a computer addon to the Famicom before American corporations came in and stole the computer market. While they had most of the components for this system already under development seperately,Nintendo decided to bring them all together into one package, known as the Nintendo Famicom Computer Module, or FCM for short. This addon included a ROM cartridge for the BASIC programming language or the CP/M Operating System, a main module containing the system's RAM, an integrated Keyboard, ports for the cassette drive addon and the upcoming disk drive, and even a second CPU, allowing the FCM to outpace American Computers with ease. With this, the Famicom was turned from a silly child's toy into a serious business machine, and Nintendo was quick to capitalize on that with the release of the FCM-101 Business Computer in mid-1985, with all the features of the FCM, but without the need to have a Famicom hooked up to it to run, insted having it's own outputs for dedicated monitors or televisions. They had also rushed the development of their disk storage system, releasing it in November of that year. Also in 1985, Nintendo brought it's Famicom, Computer Module, Disk System, and FCM-101 to North America with it's Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Computerizer, Nintendo NCS Disk System, and The Nintendo Computer System, respectively. Though the computer system did sell moderately well in North America, the majority of income from the machine was in Japan, and Nintendo realized they had struck a goldmine. Meanwhile, without anyone's notice, the IBM corporation filed a copyright for something known under the working title of the ThinkBook, but that is a story for another day. . .

The BASIC ROM, disk drive, and keyboard for the FCM (Ignore the OTL signage, this is merely to provide some idea of what the system would look like)

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

On a side note, as far as I remember it, what made the PC so ubiquitous was not so much the computer itself, but the fact that IBM licensed out their PC structure to pretty much every one interested. Thus even if IBM would loose money on its own PC's, some other company with leaner production costs and better marketing skills could still sell their own PC-compatible devices and make a profit...

Yeah. IBM licenced the bios BIOS and published specs. It became trivial to build an IBM compatible clone legally.

Most of the other companies, Apple in particular, were very, VERY protective of their hardware and firmware. That made most clones illegal, and nonviable.

IBM actually didn't expect the PC to be a big thing, otherwise they'd have made it far harder to copy. In fact, once they realized their 'mistake', the introduced the PS/2 series which ended up flopping badly - because it wasn't IBM compatible enough.

So. If IBM had believed it was going to be a big success, they'd have made their PC more like a PS/2 of OTL, and it would have flopped.

My guess is CP/M and its various descendants would take over, probably with some industry standards to make e.g. bios calls work across machine lines.

Machines will be slower, because of less optimization possible, more expensive, and not as common.

Motorola replaces Intel in this TL as the supermassive chip maker.

 

[Nivek]

Nice update and that cliffhanger..the early laptops? that will be something

 

[xavthewhovian]

Great things are to come... Next part will talk about what happened in America in the timeframe of the last part, and should probably be out by Monday at the soonest. I mainly post when it is convenient for me, so it could be any time between then and a week from then.

 

[xavthewhovian]

I have hidden a secret somewhere... It contains a hint for Part III. See if you can find it. You won't even need to leave this page.