The AT&T UnixPC was AT&T's attempt to get into the business computer market of the mid-1980s. There were two flavors of this machine: the 7300, and the 3B1. Basically the circuitry is identical in both machines however the 3B1 allowed more room for hard-drive storage, as shown with the ominous bulge underneath the screen. (not shown in model above).
The windowing manager was absolutely wonderful keeping the UNIX system well hidden, however, you could naturally open a shell and interface directly. The graphics system was neat as well - there is a 3D bitmap demo online somewhere.
These computers could support 3 terminals with an add-on card for concurrent use by up to 4 users (one at he console, one on the built-in port, and one each on the two add-on ports).
The keyboard could be "nested" on the shelf in front of the floppy drive. The sound was limited to beeps.
There was also an add-on board with a speech synthesizer which could turn the UnixPC into a full-fleged voicemail management system.
An absolutely wonderful and advanced computer for it's time, which can still teach modern computers a lesson in innovation.
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Contributors: Domenic Schipani, Gary Clouse
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
There is an AT$T UNIX PC emulator called FreeBee, available on github: philpem/freebee
Tuesday 8th June 2021
Jesse (United States)
I received a PC7300 with a nearly full set of manuals and disks. I need to see if I can get those disks imaged so that they can be shared.
Wednesday 7th June 2017
David (United States)
This looks like the beginning of UNIX/LINUX/BSD for the home computer user.
Emulators don''t work. I am bumbed :-(
But over the years all the software on this system has already been ported and updated to all corners of the round earth. :-)
Wednesday 1st February 2017
Mister Technological Archaeologist MD PHD NUT
NAME
Unix PC
MANUFACTURER
ATT
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1985
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Bourne Shell Scripting, C and ASM with optional Software
KEYBOARD
Detachable 103-key QWERTY
CPU
Motorola MC68010 (16 bit external bus, 32bit internal) with custom MMU
SPEED
10 MHz
CO-PROCESSOR
Custom Gate Arrays for DMA (3), 8088 (86?) on optional DOS-73
RAM
512 KB / 1 MB / 2 MB / 4 MB
ROM
16 KB EPROM holding Boot Strap, Diagnostics etc.
TEXT MODES
80 columns x 29 rows
GRAPHIC MODES
348 x 720 on built-in 12'' Monitor
COLORS
Green On Black Monochrome
SOUND
Beeper
I/O PORTS
Centronics, RS-232c, Tip/Ring Line Modular Phone Jacks (2), RJ11 Phone Jack (1). Internal Expansion Slot (3), Internal 300/1200 bps modem
BUILT IN MEDIA
10 or 20mb hard drive then later 40 and 67mb hard drive. 5 1/4
OS
AT&T Unix v3.51, Unix based on System V r2 with extensions from BSD 4.1, BSD 4.2, SysV r3 and Convergent Technologies
