Details about IBM's early 'scientific' computers

[Jon Elson]

On 11/14/2017 09:10 PM, ben via cctalk wrote:
>
>> I think the 360 marked the change from hardware-driven 
>> development to
>> software-driven. The 'arcane' architectures would have 
>> maximised
>> performance for a given amount of hardware, and 
>> programmers were
>> relatively cheap. But the 360 reversed that, hardware was 
>> now cheap
>> and didn't need to work at 100% efficiency, but software 
>> development
>> was expensive so writing and re-writing needed to be 
>> minimised.
>
> Computer Science seems to be mostly developed in the 1968 
> - 1973 time frame by average people with access with a 
> (personal) computer with about 32K of memory.
Hmmm?  Not too many personal computers in 1968-73.  There 
was the LINC 12-bit mini that cost about $50K and was 
designed for use by one person at a time.  I built an 8008 
machine in 1976 or so, and got a Z-80 S-100 system going in 
about 1977.

Jon