Editing Data General (section)

====Eagle====
[[Image:Tom West taken on Nov 21, 2009.jpg|thumb|right|Tom West (as seen in 2009)]]
In the spring of 1978, with Fountainhead apparently in [[development hell]], a secret [[Skunkworks project|skunkworks]] project was started to develop an alternative 32-bit system known as "Eagle" by a team led by [[Tom West]]. References to "the Eagle project" and "Project Eagle" co-exist.<ref name=ObitWest/> Eagle was a straightforward, 32-bit extension of the Nova-based Eclipse. It was backwards-compatible with 16-bit Eclipse applications, used the same command-line interpreter, but offered improved 32-bit performance over the VAX 11/780 while using fewer components.

By late 1979, it became clear that Eagle would deliver before Fountainhead, igniting an intense [[wikt:turf war|turf war]] within the company for constantly shrinking project funds. In the meantime, customers were abandoning Data General in droves, driven not only by the delivery problems with the original Eclipse, including very serious quality control and customer service problems, but also the power and versatility of Digital's new VAX line. Ultimately, Fountainhead was cancelled and Eagle became the new MV series, with the first model, the [[Data General Eclipse MV/8000]], announced in April 1980.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/330/eagle.html#timeline |title= CPSC 3300: The Soul of a New Machine}}</ref>

The Eagle Project was the subject of [[Tracy Kidder]]'s [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning book, ''[[The Soul of a New Machine]]'', making the MV line the best-documented computer project in recent history.