On Sat, 28 Feb 1998, Sam Ismail wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Feb 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
>
> > > > > What does PDP mean, exactly? Is it something like the PC standard?
> > > >
> > > > PDP = Programmed Data Processor. It was the name that DEC used instead of
> > > > the word 'Computer' for various reasons, most of them lost in the folklore.
> > >
> > > According to _Computer: A History of the Information Machine_ by Martin
> > > Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray (BasicBooks, ISBN: 0-465-02989-2 [hard]
> > > 0-465-02990-6 [paper]), Len Olsen is quoted as choosing the name
> > ^^^
> > I don't know if that's an error in the original, or a typo, but I'm
> > pretty sure it should be 'Ken'.
>
> Sorry. Blatant typo. It is in fact "Ken" ('k' is right next to 'l').
>
> > > Programmed Data Processor because nobody would believe that "in 1960
> > > computers that could do the job could be built for less than $1 million."
> >
> > That's certainly one of the reasons that I've heard. Another is that
> > there was either a tax on 'computers' or that if you were a
> > government-funded place (state funded?) you could only buy 'computers'
> > from a very few approved companies. So Digital/DEC didn't make
> > 'computers' - they made Programmed Data Processors. Whether either of
> > those reasons is true I don't know.
>
> I've heard this reason for other "computers" not being called that as
> well...things like computers being called calculators because one couldn't
> get a computer in the budget.
True! The DOD had such a policy in the '70s. A lot of 'programmable
calculators were bought in that era.
- don
>
> Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
>
> Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
> See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
>
>
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Received on Sun Mar 01 1998 - 16:47:43 GMT