Status of Symbolics
David K. Schmidt
In January Symbolics laid off the last 3 employees. After 10 years with
Symbolics and two unsuccessful attempts to buy the assets, I am off to
other, yet to be determined, endeavors. My last year and a half as
President, CEO, CFO, Director of Sales and East Coast Customer Service
Engineer was without a doubt the most interesting. I want to thank all
those loyal Symbolics customers who helped keep the company going well pa=
st
its perdicted demise. =
In anticipation of a number of questions that people might have, I am
providing the following information.
The person or persons who made the successful offer to buy the Symbolics
assets are using a Boston law firm, Ropes and Gray (617-951-7000), to
handle the purchase. I have heard rumors that Andrew Topping is involve=
d
in the deal, but I have no information about him. I do not know what the=
ir
plans are and do not know whether they will offer hardware and/or softwa=
re
maintenance. =
The Symbolics phone numbers in Chatsworth, CA are still in operation, but=
no one is answering the phone and I am not sure whether anyone is checkin=
g
the messages.
Princeton Capital Finance Co. (PrinCap), the current owner of the Symboli=
cs
assets, told me they were shutting down their operation on Friday, 2/27. =
Their phone number (609-275-7100) is supposed to remain in service as a
voice mail box. I was told that Steve Gander had been tasked by ABN-AMRO=
Bank to hold Symbolics together until the purchase is closed. His curren=
t
E-mail address is gan...@dinar.princap.com, but that will change after th=
ey
turn off the PrinCap computers in a month or so. The only mailing addres=
s
left for Symbolics is P.O. Box 389, Princeton Junction, NJ 80530
Ron Drake is the representative of ABN-AMRO Bank who is supervising the
shutdown of PrinCap. He appears to have significant influence over what
happens to the Symbolics assets and is directing Steve Gander on what he =
is
allowed to do for Symbolics maintenance customers. His number is
212-891-0621. This is the only number for the current owners where you
will get a live person at the other end of the phone.
Before I left, the second release of Open Genera for DEC Alpha workstatio=
ns
was ready to go out for CD duplication. Genera 8.5 for Ivory workstation=
s
was close to completion, but had a few bugs left to work out. I do not
know what the future of these two products will be.
For those people with hardware problems while Symbolics is in a state of
limbo, I will be happy to try to assist you in any way I can. If you need=
help or have other questions, please feel free to contact me by E-mail at=
dksc...@compuserve.com or by phone at 703-455-0430.
DAVID K. SCHMIDT
Georg Bauer
David K. Schmidt <dksc...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> In January Symbolics laid off the last 3 employees.
Yuck. Looks like moaning day. :-(
bye, Georg
Jack Harper
Greetings all...
This is my first post to the Symbolics list -- I am very happy to have
found it.
While I have 25-yrs (getting old :( experience programming in various
flavors of Lisp (starting with Lisp 1.5 on the Univac 1108 back in 1972 --
system obtained from the University of Wisconsin), I have *never* worked
with a Lisp Machine -- until now.
Someone just gave me a Symbolics 3620 that works quite well -- and a
Symbolics 3650 that has some hardware problems.
Question: Does anyone know of a source of parts (boards et. al.) for the
3650? Is there a great Lisp Machine Junkyard out there somewhere? I am not
really sure what the problem is yet -- I am not getting any video out.
While I am certainly much stronger in software than hardware (I usually
hurt myself if I try to use a screwdriver), I am able to do basic hardware
troubleshooting which I am beginning to think is a prerequisite to working
with Lisp Machines these days...
Any advice and/or counsel would be greatly appreciated. :)
Regards
Jack Harper
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Jong-won Choi
> <snip>
>Question: Does anyone know of a source of parts (boards et. al.) for the
>3650? Is there a great Lisp Machine Junkyard out there somewhere? I am not
>really sure what the problem is yet -- I am not getting any video out.
Deflection board? My 3640 is falling in deep sleep because of deflection
board failure.
Maybe some people out there have extra deflection board. Can anyone help
Jack and me?
Thanks,
- Jong-won Choi