Three Rivers PERQ

Three Rivers PERQ is a Unix-based workstation computer developed by Three Rivers Computer Corporation, founded by Owen Williams, James Gibson, and William D. Strecker. The PERQ was designed to be a high-performance, low-cost alternative to other workstations on the market, such as those from Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard. The PERQ was also influenced by the Xerox Alto and Xerox Star systems, developed at Xerox PARC by Butler Lampson, Charles Simonyi, and Larry Tesler. The PERQ's design was also impacted by the work of Douglas Engelbart and his team at Stanford Research Institute.

Introduction

The Three Rivers PERQ was announced in 1979 and was one of the first commercially available workstations, competing with other systems from Apollo Computer, Symbolics, and Massachusetts Computer Corporation. The PERQ was designed to support a wide range of applications, including computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and scientific computing, using software from Autodesk, ComputerVision, and Structural Dynamics Research Corporation. The PERQ was also used in various academic and research institutions, including Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where it was used by researchers such as Alan Kay, Adele Goldberg, and Daniel Ingalls. The PERQ's popularity was also influenced by the work of Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation.

History

The development of the PERQ began in the late 1970s, when Three Rivers Computer Corporation was founded by Owen Williams, James Gibson, and William D. Strecker, who were all former employees of Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Pittsburgh University. The company was based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was funded by Venture capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital. The PERQ was designed to be a high-performance, low-cost alternative to other workstations on the market, and was influenced by the Xerox Alto and Xerox Star systems, developed at Xerox PARC by Butler Lampson, Charles Simonyi, and Larry Tesler. The PERQ was also impacted by the work of Douglas Engelbart and his team at Stanford Research Institute, who developed the mouse and other human-computer interaction technologies. The PERQ's development was also influenced by the work of John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, and Edsger Dijkstra.

Hardware

The PERQ workstation was based on a 32-bit microprocessor designed by National Semiconductor, and had a memory management unit (MMU) designed by Zilog. The PERQ also had a bitmapped display and a mouse input device, similar to those developed at Xerox PARC by Butler Lampson and Charles Simonyi. The PERQ's hardware was also influenced by the DEC PDP-11 and VAX systems, developed by Digital Equipment Corporation. The PERQ's design was also impacted by the work of Gordon Bell, Alan Newell, and Bob O. Evans. The PERQ was also compatible with software from Oracle Corporation, Informix, and Ingres Corporation.

Software

The PERQ workstation ran a Unix-based operating system, called PERQ OS, which was developed by Three Rivers Computer Corporation. The PERQ OS was compatible with AT&T Unix and BSD Unix, and had a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to those developed at Xerox PARC by Butler Lampson and Charles Simonyi. The PERQ also supported a wide range of software applications, including computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software from Autodesk and ComputerVision. The PERQ's software was also influenced by the work of Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Ken Thompson. The PERQ was also used by researchers such as Donald Knuth, Robert Floyd, and Edgar F. Codd.

Impact

The Three Rivers PERQ had a significant impact on the development of the workstation market, and was one of the first commercially available workstations to gain widespread acceptance. The PERQ's influence can be seen in later workstations from Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard, which were all influenced by the PERQ's design and architecture. The PERQ's impact was also felt in the development of Unix and Linux, which were both influenced by the PERQ's operating system and software applications. The PERQ's legacy can also be seen in the work of Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Tim Berners-Lee, who all contributed to the development of free and open-source software. The PERQ's influence also extended to the development of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which were popularized by the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems, developed by Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. Category:Computer hardware