08/12/04

Kidder, Chapter 1

pages 8 - 27

  1. The desire of scientists and engineers for control of computing resources led to inexpensive minicomputers, as opposed to mainframes.
  2. Minicomputers were made possible by transistors, specifically by IC chips.
  3. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) made the first widely sold minicomputer, the PDP-8, a 12-bit machine that came equipped with 4096 (12-bit) words of memory and had a clock speed of less than 1 MHz. DEC is now owned by Compaq.
  4. The PDP-8 was designed by a team led by Edson de Castro, who was to become a founder and President of Data General. Data General has been acquired by EMC.
  5. In 1968, Ed de Castro and two other young engineers left DEC and founded Data General after DEC had decided not to build a new machine that they had designed.
  6. Data general's first machine, the NOVA, was successful and Data General grew rapidly to become a competitor to DEC.
  7. DEC claimed that the NOVA was designed while de Castro and the others were still on the DEC payroll, and hence, that the design was stolen from them. But DEC never sued. (Scroll down this document, or do a broswer search for "deCastro" to learn a little more about the controversy.)
  8. Start-up companies, such as Data General, who sold minicomputers had the advantage over IBM of selling mainly to scientists and engineers (and OEM companies) who were knowledgeable about computers. Such users could be reached with low cost advertising at technical shows and in trade journals. They also required (and received) little service from the manufacturer. IBM, on the other hand, dealt with a more diverse group of users who typically were less knowledgeable about computers and hence were more expensive to serve and reach through advertising.
  9. Data General's rough and ready image resulted from:
    1. the initial controversy with DEC
    2. its aggressive advertising style
    3. rumored association with a fire at a competitor's manufacturing plant
    4. its litigious attitude towards customers and others
    5. its self-promotion of such an image
  10. Many start-up companies fail because they cannot deal with the problems of rapid growth:
    1. inability to meet rapidly expanding demands for their products
    2. shortage of money (capital) to grow
    3. shortage of capable new people
    4. difficulty of successfully integrating a large number of new people into the company