GEC Series 63

The hardware development (under Dick Ruth and Ed Mack) was done in Scottsdale, Arizona whilst the software was the responsibility of GEC in Dunstable, UK.

Subsequently, a version of UNIX System V Release 2 was added - largely to compete with VAX machines which were becoming the fashionable computer of choice amongst academics, concerned about being able to access software from US colleagues.

[citation needed] (Other comparable early Unix ports included that of the High Level Hardware Orion system which launched with 4.1BSD Unix in 1984, ICL's PNX for the PERQ workstation in 1983,[3] and a reported port to a Bleasdale Computer Systems product by Root Computer in early 1983.

[1] The 63/40 added an embedded GEC 4160 minicomputer running OS4000 to provide additional communications features (such as X.25 and X.29 access).

The Series 63 was used by several UK universities, also being procured with some controversy as part of the Alvey Project, having been chosen as a British-made alternative (along with Systime-produced VAX machines) to the DEC VAX, with DEC's machine being the only one available at the time that was capable of running the specified Berkeley Unix operating system.