High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

[Randy Dawson]

I had a similar board set for CAD, wish I still had it.  It was two boards, a 68000 and a graphics board, to run VERSACAD.

In the CAD wars against AUTOCAD, we were winning for a bit, I was a rep selling this 3D solution.

It was Sun3 boot, and ran the Sun version of VERSACAD.


________________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Michael Holley <swtpc6800 at comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 9:57 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: RE: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

I worked for the FutureNet division of Data I/O in the late 1980s. One disastrous product was a UNIX based coprocessor system that plugged into an IBM PC/AT. The idea was to run circuit board layout software and simulation on a PC. This would be less expensive than the Daisy, Mentor, or Valid workstations. The coprocessor was an Opus plug in board based on the National 32032 CPU.
http://cpu-ns32k.net/Opus.html

When you ordered the package you got the coprocessor board and a 5 MB hard drive loaded with UNIX and the design software. On a good day the system worked. It was discontinued when PCs with the 368 processor were available.

Michael Holley