26 Nov
2019
26 Nov
'19
7:18 p.m.
Fred,
Agreed!
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!
On 11/26/2019 9:16 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Good point.
Some companies that COULD HAVE been the leaders made great inventions
and/or engineering, and then fumbled the marketing.
I'm thinking that Xerox Parc could be said to have "invented" the next
generation of personal computers, but did they ever cash in on that?
I can visualize a Apple/Microsoft argument, "But we stole it FIRST!"
(like English/French/Spanish in America)
On Tue, 26 Nov 2019, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
I would make a strong argument that DEC invented
the PC: Twice
actually. The PDT11/150 is a pretty amazing system: 64k of memory,
serial port, printer port, RT11 operating system and if I recall
correctly someone wrote a version of Visicalc and a nice word
processor on it as a demonstration.
Unfortunately Dec saw that such a system would cannibalize their
sales of pdp11 computers and sold the damn thing as a communication
controller. Sad beyond belief.
They did it again with the Pro/350: A system that had integrated
graphics, 512k of memory, dual floppies and a hard disk, easy to
install card options (Ethernet, TMS, etc) and of course a real time
multi-program operating system and (with Synergy) a fairly neat GUI.
Unfortunately Dec saw that such a system would cannibalize their
sales of pdp and vax computers and crippled the living daylights out
of it. Ultimately selling it as a front-end processor. Sad beyond
belief.
It wasn't just having the technology, it was having it and knowing
how to market it. You need both to make a good product and DEC really
was all about protecting their current market share (which is insane
as they came to be by exploiting a niche in the computer industry).
Oh well.
CZ