I recently pulled my MacIvory out of storage and set it up again.
Updates will follow as time permits.
Symbolics Lisp machines are a line of single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming language. They were popular for artificial intelligence research and computer animation. They were also used as front end processors for the Connection Machine super computers. The Symbolics machines are no longer manufactured, but refurbished systems are are still sold and supported by Symbolics.
In November of 2003 I bought a Symbolics MacIvory II workstation from Symbolics. I'm not any kind of engineer or computer scientist. I'm a hobbyist who has taken a fancy for what I consider one of the more interesting corners of computer technology development. I have a small gallery of pictures.
I have a MacIvory model 2 workstation (speed factor 2). The Macintosh "host" is a Quadra 650 with 40 MB of RAM, a 4 GB SCSI disk, CD drive, built-in ethernet and video, Apple extended keyboard and a one-button mouse. It's running Mac O/S 7.6. The Symbolics processor is a MacIvory model 2 co-processor board with FPA and 2.6 MWords (16 MB) of NuBus memory. The Ivory processor has a 40 bit word. An adapter to allow the Quadra to connect to standard VGA monitors was included. I have mine plugged into a Samsung SyncMaster 150MP flat-screen monitor. I also have pictures of the keyboard with overlay, Macintosh chassis, the back of the chassis and the Ethernet transceiver. The cost for this unit was $1,200 plus shipping and handling. If you want an inexpensive, no fuss system with Genera, it's a good one to pick.
I think Michael Parker best describes what makes the Symbolics machines interesting on his Toys page:
"The Genera operating system is object-oriented to a degree that even the NeXTStation can't aspire. Everything on the screen is an active object; you can do a directory listing on the console, and each filename knows what it is and what you can do with it. Mouse over it and it hilights to let you know it's active. Left-click on it and you get a menu with options for edit, rename, delete, compile, etc. Any error message that gets printed out to the console will have active keywords that if you click on them will bring up the online manuals to the appropriate spot. You can bring up a dialog inline in the console, and after you finish with it it will remain in the scroll buffer like any other text. Imagine what an XML shell would be like, and you're starting to get the picture. Except that this type of behavior is consistent everywhere in the system, the editor, the help system, the browsers, the inspectors, everything."
It's interesting to note that the old "deployment problem" of lisp applications doesn't really matter so much when the application is deployed using the web. The old www.pub.whitehouse.gov web site (It ran on a Symbolics XL1200) was one of the better known proofs of concept for this idea. Paul Graham's Viaweb (later known as Yahoo store) and Orbitz are more recent examples of server side lisp applications that I know of. Specifications like XML-RPC make this all the more true for distributed computing. It's really too bad Symbolics had to stop manufacturing before the web could be better exploited by the Symbolics machines. The NXP1000 looks like it might have been well suited for that purpose.
After surfing the web a bit, listening to some tales of the old Symbolics machines and reading peoples takes on the Genera development environment, my curiosity got the best of me. At that point I figured I'd just buy one and try it out for myself.
Keven Rosenberg posted Gabriel benchmarks of Genera on his Lisp and Debian page. This is the results of a 533Mhz Alpha 21164 with 512MB of RAM run by Keven. This the results of a MacIvory III run by Ranier Joswig. I thought it was interesting that the Alpha was only about 3 times faster for most tests, though it was 38 times faster on the FFT.
To get an idea of how Genera running the Gabriel benchmarks compares to open source lisp implementations, you might want to see the CMUCL performance benchmarks page .
It's worth pointing out that there are a lot of people who think that absolute machine performance is not the only measure of how useful the Lisp machines can be. Many people keep using Lisp machines (or the VLM on the Alpha) just so they can use Genera as a prototyping environment.
If you plan to go it alone with the old Symbolics hardware, be prepared to keep a pile of spare Symbolics parts to keep your machines running. You will also need to develop some expertise in trouble shooting and repair. As much as I like having the old machines to fool with, I wouldn't deploy new production to them. We maintain end-of-life Sun hardware at my office and it can be a challenge. There is nothing quite like running end-of-life software, accessing an end-of-life database, on an end-of-life operating system on end-of-life hardware that needs to be up 24/7 because it's used by people all over the world doing important work. It keeps you on your toes... On the other hand, I bet those script kiddies and crackers that break into Windows and Linux boxes would not have a clue of how to break into into a properly configured LISPM.
The MacIvory II makes a nice small workstation that is simple to ship and uses modern SCSI drives. It is twice as fast as the Symbolics 3600, Speed Factor 2 to use the lingo. You can use it with a standard SVGA monitor. When I bought mine, Symbolics was shipping the MacIvory II in a Macintosh Quadra 650 chassis. The limited number of slots in this Mac makes it difficult to expand the memory beyond 2.6 MW (16MB) or to use it with a NuVista video card. The MacIvory-II uses two separate NuBus cards for the processor and memory. This means that the CPU has to access memory via the Quadra NuBus, limiting the speed of memory access. As long as you don't need high end graphics or to work large data sets, it will work fine. I think it makes a great learning environment for Lisp programming. I'm very happy with mine.
The XL1200 is a much more capable machine in terms of speed, memory and expansion when compared to the MacIvory II. It runs at Speed Factor 6, six times the speed of the Symbolics 3600. Last I heard, Symbolics was shipping the XL1200 with 8MW (40MB) of memory, quite a bit more that the MacIvory-II/Quadra-650 combination. The processor chassis also has room for high end graphics hardware if you need it. This however makes the processor chassis large and heavy. Additionally the XL1200 needs the proprietary Symbolics console. This adds to the cost when it comes to shipping, and creates the opportunity for more things to break. The fans in the XL-1200 are also reported to be noisy. You might want to think about a long console cable and putting the machine outside your work area.
If you live in Europe, Peter Paine has available Symbolics systems and spare parts. He is in the UK.
See the Peter Paine dimensions page for specific Symbolics equipment sizes and weights.
If you are interested in purchasing Genera or a Symbolics system for yourself, contact David Schmidt at Symbolics for current pricing and availability information.
Symbolics first Lisp machine product was the LM-2, released in 1981. It was a MIT CADR, repackaged to increase reliability and be easier to service. It included improvements to the system software and offered options including Fortran-77, color graphics hardware, and the LGP-1 laser graphics printer. It used a CHAOSnet interface for networking.
The second generation was introduced in 1982, referred to as the "L-machine" at Symbolics. They were built using standard TTL integrated circuits. The processor design required five cards. Use of ethernet was introduced. This generation included the 3600, 3640, 3645, 3670 and 3675 models. The 3645 and 3675 included an additional processor board for instruction prefetching called the Enhanced Performance Option. It was said to increase program execution speeds by up to fifty percent.
The third generation was called the "G-machine" and was implemented on custom integrated circuits. The processor design only required two cards. This generation included the 3610, 3620, 3630 and 3650. This generation was more cost effective to manufacture, but only slightly faster than the L-machines. The higher hard drive and memory capacity of the day allowed the 3610 and 3620 to be almost as small as a modern full tower PC.
The last generation of Symbolics hardware was based on a single chip processor called the Ivory. It was first introduced in 1987. This chip was used in the standalone XL400, XL1200 and XL1201 workstation models. The Ivory was available as a co-processor in Sun workstations as the UX400 and UX1200. It was also available as a co-processor for Apple Machintosh computers as the MacIvory I, II and III. The last Ivory product was the NXP1000, a network attached server, accessed via X-Windows.
In 1993, Symbolics took a step away from hardware manufacturing entirely. They started shipping Open Genera, running on the DEC 3000 model 400 and 500 AXP workstations. Open Genera runs in a Virtual Lisp Machine written in assembler for the Alpha processor. Like many of its applications, the Genera OS survived leaving its specialized hardware.
The former Symbolics Inc. produced special-purpose computer systems for running and developing object-oriented programs in Lisp. I've collected various announcements and reports that may give you some insight into the events during it's final days in the 1990's. It was mostly collected from the SLUG mailing list. It's my opinion that the release of CL-HTTP in 1994 or something similar, could have made a difference for Symbolics fortunes. On the other hand, I get the feeling that Symbolics had too much on their plate at the time, to take advantage of it.
As a side note, former employees of Nichimen Graphics have started the company Izware LLC. They support former Nichimen Graphics products. Symbolics and Nichimen Graphics have a common past. The Symbolics software S-Graphics was acquired by Nichimen, who renamed it N-Graphics. It was turned into a series of high-end graphics tools: N-World, then Mirai. Mirai, still written in Lisp, has received some recent, well deserved fame as being used for the creation of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Animation World Magazine wrote an article about it in March 2003.
If you want to see some examples of what kind of animation was done on the Lisp machines, check out "Beyond the Mind's Eye" on DVD. The clip "Displacement animation of intelligent objects" is credited to being created with Symbolics 2D/3D software on a Symbolics 3650 by Matt Elson.
Please send comments or corrections to rbc@rbcarleton.com.
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