Data General Eclipse
| Company type | Product line |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Predecessor | Data General Nova |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Founder | Data General |
| Defunct | 1988 |
| Successor | Data General Eclipse MV/8000 |
| Products | 16-bit minicomputers |
The Data General Eclipse series, developed by Data General, consisted of 16-bit minicomputers introduced in early 1974 and remained available until 1988. Drawing on the design principles of the Data General Nova, the Eclipse incorporated capabilities such as virtual memory and multitasking, with a focus on small office applications rather than laboratory use. It was housed in a distinctive floor-standing chassis approximately the size of a compact refrigerator. In 1980, the Eclipse lineup was succeeded by the 32-bit Data General Eclipse MV/8000.
Description
While the Data General Nova sought to deliver superior performance compared to the PDP-8 at a reduced price, the Eclipse was positioned to rival larger systems like the PDP-11. It preserved the Nova’s straightforward register design but introduced a stack pointer, a feature later adopted in the Nova 3 (1975) and the 32-bit Data General Eclipse MV/8000. Its advanced AOS operating system provided enhanced functionalities such as access control lists (ACLs) for securing files, exceeding what was available on PDP-11 platforms.
Manufacturing difficulties plagued the Eclipse during production, resulting in legal actions in the late 1970s after numerous customers placed advance orders for units that were never delivered. Due to delays surpassing one year, some buyers pursued lawsuits while others canceled their orders and switched suppliers. Although initially designed to fully replace the Nova—evidenced by the discontinuation of Nova 3 soon after Eclipse’s launch—ongoing demand for the Nova and persistent issues with the Eclipse compelled Data General to introduce the Nova 4.
Facts
The original Cray-1 utilized an Eclipse as its Maintenance and Control Unit (MCU), outfitted with two Ampex CRT displays, an 80 MB Ampex disk storage device, a thermal printer, and a 9-track tape drive. This unit’s primary role was to load either the Cray Operating System or customer diagnostics during startup. Once booted, it functioned as a monitoring and control console through RDOS station software.