During the 1980's many companies came out with workstation or micro-computer
systems. Many were specialized to particular types of work. Such companies
people would recognize are Sun, SGI, DEC (vaxes), etc. The story of Ardent
Computer Corporation is typical of many startups, a really neat product is created using
venture capitol but the product sales can't sustain the company and it finally colapses.
For most of the history I've used 2 sites:
History of Kubota Graphics
by Todd Massey and
Ardent systems reviewed by NPAC of Syracuse University. This story is:
In 1985 Dana Computer was founded by Alan Michels, who had worked at and started Convergent Technologies. The
name was soon change to Ardent due someone else using Dana. The company was funded by Kubota Ltd. of Japan.
Ardent built the Titan Graphics computer. The system had a 1 to 4 processors which shared 8 to 128 megabytes of memory.
You have to remember in the mid-80's 1 meg of memory was huge. Just a few years earlier Bill Gates was quoted
saying "No one will ever need more than 640k." Each CPU had an Ardent custom vector processing chip with divide, pipelined
multiplier, pipelined adders and subtracterors, etc. This vector proceesing along with intergrated graphics boards allowed
for very efficient graphics work. Graphics was supported by PHIGS+, CGI as well as Ardent's software "Doré."
The systems ran AT&T System V.3 Unix, with many Berkely 4.3 enhancements for communications, high I/O bandwidth. Reads of upto
1000 Kbyte/sec is possible using disk striping, a very impressive rate for the 80's. C and fortran
vectorizing and parallelizing compilers are supported so programmers can get the most out of the system.
Beta sites began testing Titan in 1987. General delivery of one and two processor systems began in May 1988 and four processor
machines starting shipping by 4Q.
In 1989 Ardent merges with Stellar, Ardents only competitor at the time.
The new company is called Stardent. The merger was not welcome at Ardent,
and forced by Kubota. This triggered many of the best people leaving Ardent/Stardent.
In 1990 Alan Michels sued Kubota who forced the meger. It was settled out of court.
Stardent goes through various convultions over the next 5 years.
As a last ditch efford a new company Kubota Pacific is born. They have a limited time to become successful
before their money dries up. The original head quaters at 880 Maude Ave are shutdown in fall 1990. Various new
systems are developed including one using DEC alpha processors, but the money runs out.
By 1995 the company is now known as Kubota Graphics Corporation, and is shutting down. Doré is released into the public domain.
Those wanting to download it can find it at:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/packages/development/graphics/Dore
This is a simple cache located close to the original headquarters. It's an ammo can.
It may be a bit muddy in wet weather. The initial cache
contents were:
- Log Book + Pen.
- D batteries.
- Veggie clip, for fish tank.
- Thread.