7 Aug
2009
7 Aug
'09
6:11 p.m.
eric wrote:
My family roots have similar lineage to that of Bob
Beck (he was hired
by Max alongside Bob into SDS from Bendix and then Packard Bell.)
Would be interesting to hear more details of Bendix and PB from your
contact. Bob Evans (Univ of Utah /E&S) was also there and developed
the electronic differential analyzer box (DA-1) for the G-15 before
going to UCB and then Univ of Utah. Bob considers the delay memory of
the PB-250 to be a significant advance over the drum in the G-15 and
MADDIDA. There is also some dispute over how much of a role Harry Huskey
really played in the development of the G-15.
Bob retired from the computer industry once ICs got into general use.
He never really liked them very much. Wayne Lichtenburger, one of the
main guys behind the GENIE project at UCB (which became the SDS 940)
told me that he really liked the circuits used in the 930 compared
to the stuff being sold by DEC at the time because they were better
designed. This was after I asked him why they based their timesharing
machine design on SDS instead of DEC.