
The Jonathan Computer - bane
http://www.storiesofapple.net/the-jonathan-computer.html
======
acqq
Now the company doesn't exist anymore, but Burroughs was very influential
company once and they had their model B25 which they already advertised in
1984 and it already used the "books on a shelf" method:

[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CTOS-B25.JPG](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CTOS-B25.JPG)

The magazine ad in "Black Enterprise, Jul 1984," obviously produced earlier:

[http://s10.postimg.org/si1xx4l89/B25.jpg](http://s10.postimg.org/si1xx4l89/B25.jpg)

To compare, the article about the Jonathan computer starts with "in late 1984"
and the _mockup_ was "unveiled to the Apple Executive staff in June 1985."

There were the real products in use in the "books on a shelf" form and the
form seems to be convenient.

The reasons for the rejection are certainly interesting, maybe the real reason
why the form didn't survive.

> Jean-Louis Gassée, who at time was Apple’s VP of Product Development,
> observed that they would have to sell two or three Jonathans to equal the
> profit of a single Macintosh II.

Apple even today prefers to sell "everything at once" (like the iMac, or the
effective weakening of the newest Mac mini lineup).

~~~
bane
It seems to be an idea that keeps coming up.

[https://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2006/060112.Shim.comput...](https://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2006/060112.Shim.computer.html)

[http://www.razerzone.com/christine](http://www.razerzone.com/christine)

[http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1059&st=1](http://www.old-
computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1059&st=1)

And I guess now project Aria carries on this in a spiritual sense (since now
this idea makes less and less sense for desktop computing).

------
jefurii
Looks like a more user-friendly version of the everything-is-a-module S-100
bus, letting the user plug things together without "forcing" them to open a
case and look at circuit boards.

This form factor has been fascinating to me recently. I don't see it in
consumer systems but you can see it in industrial, scientific, and military
systems by certain manufacturers[1] and in the PICMG family of standards[2]. A
recent HN post linked to a NASA proposal[3] that employed a bunch of PICMG
systems.

Aside from greater flexibility of design, you can unplug and swap out parts
without disassembling the whole system. Mounting cards in slots would minimize
vibration, making it easier to ruggedize.

[1] [http://www.chassis-
plans.com/backplanes.html#BackplanePrimer](http://www.chassis-
plans.com/backplanes.html#BackplanePrimer)

[2] [https://www.picmg.org/](https://www.picmg.org/)

[3] [http://www.vadatech.com/media/pdf_SGSS-NASA-
Paper-001.pdf](http://www.vadatech.com/media/pdf_SGSS-NASA-Paper-001.pdf)

