Re: Computing Editorial (please read)

[CBFalconer <cbfalconer@yahoo.com>]

Paul Schlyter wrote:
> 
... snip ...
> 
> When you built your first computer, the Internet was nowhere as
> widely accessible as it is today.  That's a big difference.

When I built my first computer the Internet wasn't even a gleam in
Al Gores eye.  1964.  And it didn't require monstrous resources -
we launched the firm on $20,000, and gobbled about $100,000 before
we had a salable product.  Probably about a factor of 10 for
todays money values.  The end product sold in '66 for $8,000 with
a markup of about 3x over costs.
 
> 
... snip ...
> 
> The floppy disk was invented by IBM, originally as a cheap
> alternative to punched cards -- at the time no-one knew this would
> become a very important storage medium for personal computers.
> The original 8" floppies were the incrementally improved to
> 5.25" and 3.5" floppies -- interestingly, the smaller floppies
> could also store more data!!!!

Not initially.  The first 5.25 jobs only held about 80-90k, while
the bog-standard 8" held about 250k.  Then dd and double sided
pushed those levels up by about 4.  The next change was to qd/hd,
which didn't get applied to 8" because they had become obsolete,
and produced about another factor of 4.  Which is where we stand
today, ignoring side tracks such as zip drives.

8" drives always had a 2:1 advantage over 5.25" in transfer
speed.  They gave a good deal of that back in seek time.  That was
the point of PerSci voice coil drives.

-- 
Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
   <http://cbfalconer.home.att.net>  USE worldnet address!