Whatever Happened To UNIX Workstations?
How-To Geek, Monday, December 23rd, 2024
UNIX workstations were powerful computers for science and 3D animation, popular in the '80s and '90s.
n the '80s and early '90s, powerful Unix workstations dominated technical tasks like science and 3D animation. Let's find out where they went and where you can still find them today.
What Were Unix Workstations?
Unix workstations were powerful computers that ran some variant of Unix. As the name implies, they were meant for serious work such as software development, CAD, or graphics. They were widely used by scientists, engineers, researchers, and computer animators in academia and industry.
Sun Microsystems, HP, and Silicon Graphics were some of the biggest manufacturers of workstations in that era. Unix was popular on these systems because it was easier than writing a system from scratch and the source code was available, even if it was at a steep price. Developers were also familiar with Unix from their college days.