From: Simon Spero <ses@tipper.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 19:07:59 +0800
To: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: PBS show
In-Reply-To: <ade5b5c2000210044195@[205.199.118.202]>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960614001159.4192A-100000@tipper.oit.unc.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:

> Given the low cost of the Apple unit, it's a marvel they could do it at
> all. The "IWM" was the key. Just plain good design. And "only 90 KB" is
> also misleading in implying Apple was behind the times. The IBM PC launched
> 3 years later had a built-in cassette port and only offered 180K diskette
> drives (later upgraded to 360K).

Also had more than enough computing power to break knapsack. It's not 
what you've got, it's how you use it.

Interesting gedankenexperiment... how much difference would it have made 
to ULTRA and it's predecessors if bletchley park had rediscovered 
and been able to manfacture semi-reliably primitive transistors? 

Simon



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