Data General Eclipse: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:13, 23 February 2007

Revision as of 18:12, 26 February 2007

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[[Image:Dg-eclipse.jpg|thumb|288px|right|Data General Eclipse S/130 front panel]]

The '''Data General Eclipse''' line of computers[[computer]]s by [[Data General]] were [[16-bit]] [[minicomputer]]s released in early [[1974]] and sold until [[1988]]. The Eclipse was based on many of the same concepts as the [[Data General Nova]], but included support for [[virtual memory]] and [[multitasking]] more suitable to the small office than the lab. It was also packaged differently for this reason, in a floor-standing case the size of a small [[refrigerator|fridge]].

If the Nova was an improved [[PDP-8]], the Eclipse was meant to compete against larger

[[PDP-11]] computers. However, it kept the simple register architecture, and the stack

was kept in a special memory address ___location, as it was on the later 32 bit [[MV/8000]].

The [[AOS (operating system)|AOS]] [[operating system]] was quite sophisticated, and far advanced for the PDP-11 offering, with [[Access control list|ACL]] access control lists. It was largely retained unchanged for the MV/8000 which could natively run Eclipse binary code, while the [[VAX]] used a rewritten operating system.

offering, with [[Access control list|ACL]] access control lists. It was largely retained unchanged for the MV/8000 which could natively run Eclipse binary code, while the [[VAX]] used a rewritten operating system.

Production problems with the Eclipse led to a rash of lawsuits in the late [[1970s]], after new versions of the machine were pre-ordered by many DG customers, and then never arrived. After over a year of waiting many decided to sue the company, while others simply cancelled their orders and went elsewhere. It appeared that the Eclipse was originally intended to replace the Nova outright, also evidenced by the fact that the Nova 3 series released at the same time was phased out the next year. However, strong continuing demand resulted in the Nova 4, perhaps as a result of the continuing problems with the Eclipse.