Re: One of your readers...

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Rebecca S. Taylor" <becky () td-partners com>
Date: September 2, 2008 3:18:21 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net, spaf () cerias purdue edu
Cc: ddeininger () td-partners com, becky () td-partners com
Subject: Re: [IP] One of your readers...
Reply-To: becky () td-partners com

 Gene,

my business partner, Dick Deininger, worked at IBM from 1955-1984.
He sat in the circa Q3 1959 meeting where Vin Learson (then President  
of IBM) announced that "all future IBM computing products would be  
made using transistor logic".
Vin made it clear that anyone who did not want to participate in this  
major transition was free to leave the company.
The meeting lasted all of five minutes, after which the attendees were  
told to "get back to work".

He believes your figures are accurate, likely within a few pennies.

Dick is a treasure trove of information like this, feel free to call  
us if you like.

Kind regards,
Rebecca S. Taylor
General Partner
Taylor-Deininger Partners
Austin, Texas
www.td-partners.com

(512) 288-7352 (o)
(512) 657-1066 (m)




-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 03:11 PM
To: 'ip'
Subject: [IP] One of your readers...

Begin forwarded message: From: Gene Spafford Date: September 2, 2008  
1:39:07 PM EDT To: David Farber Subject: One of your readers... Dave,  
Perhaps one of your readers would know the answer to this. I've tried  
various online and book searches and cannot find the answer. Some time  
back, I read (somewhere) that Thomas Watson, Jr. took a big gamble in  
going from the IBM 700 series to the 7000 series by using all  
transistor logic. This was circa 1959. The figure I recall is that  
transistors were about $7 each (in 1959 dollars; about $60 each in  
today's dollars). I'm looking for confirmation and/or a source  
citation for this. Thanks in advance. --spaf  
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