Seeking disruptive tech

[Eric Smith]

On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 5:21 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Because the majority of the modules in the early PDPs *were* commercially
>> available. DEC's original business was selling logic modules.
>
> I do not give a care about if they were available commercially or not.
> I am not sure why you brought it up in the first place.
>
> My point is that from an engineering standpoint, the system building
> blocks were not very good, compared with what other vendors had.

In the absence of evidence of other commercially available logic modules that
DEC could have used instead when designing the PDP-1 in 1959, I guess we'll
just have to agree to disagree.

Certainly the DEC System Modules weren't as good as things that came later,
and obviously DEC recognized that, because they replaced them. If they
didn't replace them as soon as you think they should have, presumably that's
due to inertia; the reality was that both the System Modules and the products
made from them sold pretty well.