Tails that Wag Dogs: The Influence of Software-based “Network Externalities” on the Creation of Dominant, Designs in RISC Technologies
Jonathan Khazam, David C. Mowery · 1996
Abstract Innovation in the computer workstation hardware and software industry has been rapid since the development of workstations in the early 1980s. Workstations based on reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) microprocessors recently have challenged (and in some cases have overtaken) those designed around complex-instruction-set computing (CISC) processors. This chapter explores the history and development of RISC and the commercialization strategies of Sun Microsystems, the former MIPS Computer Systems, and other producers of microprocessors and workstations.