by Richard Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com,
from DECWORLD the company newspaper, June 1982
On may 10, 1982, DEC announced three enw
series of personal computers -- the DECmate II, the Rainbow 100
and the Professinoal. Providing professional quality computing
at very low cost, these machines represent both the continuation
of DEC's strengths and the start of a new era in the comapny's
history.
According to Ken Olsen, president, "These new
personal computers are the most exciting and signficant products
DEC has produced to date. We believe they set new and higher
standards for personal computing and will have a profound impact
ont he way people will use computers in the future.
"When we started DEC," he explains, "we
believed that a comuter should be inexpensive and comapct and
fast enough that the user could interact with it. That was a
radical idea at the time. Our first comptuer wasn't very small
and wasn't very cheap -- it sold for $120,0000 -- but compared
to the million-dollar mainframe comptuers that were available
back in 1959,the PDP-1 ws a personal computer, the very first of
its kind.
"Then came the PDP-9 (1965) and PDP-11 (1970)
families. We did interactive computing, played a key role in the
development of timesharing, put computing capabilities on the
desk, within the hands of the individual. We didn't call it
personal computing back then. We called it interactive,
distributed processing, but the ideas behind thsese machines
were the same as those that the personal computers of today are
propagating.
"From the beginning, our strategy as a
company was to start with industrial quality and lower the price
while maintaining the quality adn service and providing every
feature that we knew people would want and need. So what we have
done with these new products is
really a continuation of DEC's strengths."
The newly designed personal computers, each
with black and white video display monitor, keyboard and system
box (containing the central processor, main memory and disk
unit) range in basic entry-level price from $3500 to $5000. These systems support
a wide range of computing activitiese from widely-used programs
available off-the-shelf in cmoputer stores to sophisticated word
processing, video color graphics, advanced communications and
the ability to perform several tasks at the same time.
All three machines were designed for people
who need computers as tools to help them with their work but who
do not have the time or inclination to become computer experts
-- hence the term "personal" comptuer. The main interest of
these people is the task they want to do -- such as, writing or
accoutning or engineering work or running a business or an
office -- rather than the computer itself. They want systems
that are easy to udnerstand and easy to use, powerful enough to
get the job done, reliable and easily serviced so they can be
depended on, and designed so someone can work with them
comfortably for eight hours or more a day.
Three kinds of customers
Each of these machines meets the needs of a
different kind of customer, explains Andy Knowles, vice
president, group manager. "First
there's the person who wants a personal comptuer for his or her
own work, who wants to do some word processing, some spread
sheet analysis some trend analysis, some calcuations, perhaps
some financial planning. Such a person would probably choose the
Rainbow 100, which cna use a wide variety of programs that run
on either 8-bit or 16-bit CP/M (TM) operating systems and are
now readily available in computer stores.
"The DECmate II is designed for the person
who wants to manage an office or small business,w ho wants to
share files and ocmmunicate with other peopel at work, who wants
to do serious word and list and business data processing.
"The Professional series represents the next
generation of personal computing, easy to use, with graphics,
multi-tasking communccations, and a powerful new operating
system. It includes all the featurese that people will want int
he future to interconnect to the world and take advantage of the
computing services and capabiliteis that will soon be avaialble.
"In other words, Rainbow 100 is for the
individual, DECmate II for managing the ofice, and the
Professioina is to interconnect with the whole world of
computing.
"On the one hand," notes Andy, "these
products will be used in alrge quantities at the personal level
in Fortune 1000 companies. Our traditional customers need and
ahve been waiting for such computers. On the other hand, about
half the anticipated custoemrs will be new to DEC, requiring us
to develop new methods of marketing, distribution and service to
reach them and meet their needs."
The three new computers share the same video
monitor, keyboard and system box, and also use the same power
supply, floppy disk drive and other components. The use of
common components makes it possible to take full advantage of
the economies of volume manufacturing -- reducing the number of
separate items that need to be made and kept in inventory.
Computer stores also stand to save on
inventory, explains Avram Miller, program maanger for the
Professional series. "They can buy computers in modules liek
stereo components -- stocking monitors, keyboard, boxes,
floppies, and software that thecustomer selects and puts
together as a system. In fact, these small systems never come
together in Manufacturing, only in the customer's office."
Thyese new personal computers -- by
challenges they created in Engineerng, manufacuring, Custoemr
SErvices, Mrketing and Sales -- are leading to important changes
in the ways DEC does business.
According to Ken Olsen, "There is more fun int he
business today than at any time in history. We can get more
done, more quickly, and influence things faster than at any
toehr time."
Referring to the development effort, ken
said, "They did a magnificent job on this. From an organization
point of view it should be a model."
Each product had a focused team that was
totally responsible for the complete system product -- including
both hardware and software -- frmo its inception through
develoment and shipment. The
program managers -- Avram Miller for the Professional series,
Barry Folsom for the Rainbow 100, and Dick Loveland for the
DECmate II -- led teams that included people responsible for
hardware development, software development, manufacturing,
Customer Services, and marketing, as well as such support
functionas as Personnel and Finance. The members of a team were
phycially located in the same area so they could easily
communicate with one antoher adn share common concerns.
According to Bill Avery, manager, Terminals
and Workstations Engineerng, "To compete int he fast-changing
low-end market, you have to move very quickly in turning ideas
into products. The challenge to all of these teams was to
achieve quality products in a very short time. The goals and
accountability fo all team members were celaer from the start."