From: "Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 94 07:10:53 PDT
To: adam@bwh.harvard.edu
Subject: Hardware generators was: your mail
Message-ID: <36414.pfarrell@netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In message Sat, 18 Jun 94 19:30:35 EDT,
  Adam Shostack <adam@bwh.harvard.edu>  writes:

> Making it PC only shuts out the Mac/UNIX market for your
> devices.  There are probably lots of folks in the research/scientific
> community who use UNIX & would buy a random number dongle that hangs
> off the serial port. For $25, I'd probably get our lab to buy 3 or 4.
>
> If you put it on a PC card, you're cutting out all other
> computers from using it.

Adam's points are correct, and I thought of them before I posted the
initial message.

My thinking was that about 90% of all computers sold are Intel PCs, and
to get my manufacturing costs down, I need volume and simplicity.
So by addressing the 90% solution first, I have a larger market without
the complexity of multiple platforms.

Once I've sold thousands of Hardware random number generators, then I can
afford the design effort for other platforms, if they still exist then :-)

Pat

Pat Farrell      Grad Student                 pfarrell@cs.gmu.edu
Department of Computer Science    George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Public key availble via finger          #include <standard.disclaimer>