Philips PM4422 Unix Workstation

Here’s a weird and rare European CAD workstation I’ve never seen before. It seems to be M68k-based.

It was mentioned in RetroMagazine 10:

Here is some documentation from the time:

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Greg A. Wood comment on Diaspora:

The files linked to there describe the PM 4421, very different from the PM 4422 apparently.

I’ve found some references also suggesting the PM 4222 is indeed a mc68000 based system (using a VME bus) that ran Unix. However it’s primarily described as a software development system (also known as the PMDS-II, or Philips Microprocessor Development System II), not a CAD workstation, indeed it’s a multiuser system supporting multiple serial terminals for access.

This Philips catalog covers the PM4421 and says it “is based on the highly versatile Philips PM 4400 Compact Computer system” and also shows it is based on a P851 CPU “The master system is built around the Philips P851 16-bit micro-mini CPU”:

There are two other sources I found that also mention the PM 4421 uses Philips’ own P851 CPU:

https://www.cpushack.com/2016/01/06/signetics-spc-1610-another-mini-goes-micro/
https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-AUSTRALIA/IDX/Archive-ETI-AU-IDX/IDX/ETI 1982-06 June-OCR-Page-0090.pdf

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