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Watson Jr. memo about CDC 6600 (1963)

44 points · 23 comments · mooreds

  1. rbanffy · · focus · HN ↗
    Interesting to note the question had the answer all along. How would a modest effort outrun a vast organisation?

    I never imagined he’d be caught by that mistake.

    1. KerrAvon · · focus · HN ↗
      He wasn't. The CDC 6600 cost IBM some prestige, but it didn't put a dent in IBM's sales, which were about to skyrocket due to the 360 series.
      1. rbanffy · · focus · HN ↗
        The 6600, and no doubt Watson was lectured on it, was an extremely specialised machine - it had 60 bit words and that was it. No bytes, shorts, or anything similar. It was designed for floating point math. IBM had machines for science and business that were entirely different and incompatible prior to the 360.
        1. varjag · · focus · HN ↗
          I think that misses the point of the memo. The 6600 was certainly something IBM had resources to design and market yet for some reason it couldn't.
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