[vcf-midatlantic] efficiency, put another way

[Dan Roganti]

On Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 5:09 PM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:


> I disagree 57.25%. ;) This is a marginal argument not either-or. In your
> own statement, you are looking retrospectively at a time of less resource.
> As am I.
>
> But I was there too in the 1970's. Of course we did not think of ourselves
> as entirely "resource poor". But we knew that in months or a year, the
> high-integration parts were were using - memory, RAM, etc. - would be
> cheaper and have "more". We were not blind to the future.
>

​I think this goes without saying in any generation of technology. The
biggest problem with design was hoping the bleeding edge parts were
delivered on time to meet the project schedule. People are acquainted with
future technology in components, but int he real world you had to rely on
beta and even more cutting edge alpha components.
Companies vie to get on the alpha list with many of the vendors, a limited
exclusive club, just so they can build their prototypes sooner and get to
the market faster. So by the time the hardware and software was tested and
debugged, the production components would be shipping on time - hopefully
with as few errata sheets as possible:)
I've had several issues with vendor parts schedule slipping with TI 30+ yrs
ago with delivering their alpha components for their first bidirectional
latching bus transceivers on time. To all the way in the 2000's with
Motorola and IBM delivering their latest alpha PowerPC processors. That was
how future technology was handled - it was a delicate matter.
Dan

​