On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 10:00 AM, Dan Roganti <ragooman@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 9:32 AM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
And Dan, thanks for enlightening me, I never heard that the FET was invented that long ago. Glad I am here for a good education!
I think one analogy relevant to modern times would be the electric car 20yrs ago, Consumer electric cars were built, Not counting the one from 100+yrs ago - that's even a more dire analogy They were not as effective yet as today's version of course Yet, they disappeared without any further R&D work Effectively canceling 20yrs of technology
I guess to give it an analogy which relates to this group 20yrs would be about the same as wiping out the microprocessor technology of 70s and 80s combined So maybe we would still be using TTL based CPU's by 1990
That doesn't happen without some external influence Just look at the production of vacuum tubes. The tube elements relied on metals which was a boon to the mining industry Less R&D required as opposed to the 1925 FET So companies opt for the cheap alternative Imagine if we had semiconductor computers prior to WWII Dan