On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Eric Smith wrote:
> Sellam wrote:
> > So this begs the question,
>
> No, it suggests the question. "Begging the question" means making
> an argument depending on circular reasoning. The Skeptic's Dictionary
> is one of many web sites explaining this:
> http://skepdic.com/begging.html
This is the second English lesson I've received this week (the other was
regarding the use of the word "abhor"). Thanks! ;)
> > why did the PDP-8 create the "mini-computer"
> > class and not this or other machines with similar attributes?
>
> Because there were no other machines at the same time with similar
> atrributes at a similar price.
Do you mean transistorized, running off 110 line voltage, requiring no
additional cooling, and having comparable computing power?
If so, what sort of computing power did the Monrobot XI have? I read in
the article recently pointed out that is published on the web that it
could do 5,000 calculations per second.
> However, many people consider the PDP-1 to be the first minicomputer,
> and it had even more improvement in price/performance ratio over its
> competitors than the PDP-8 had.
The general consensus that I am aware of is that the PDP-8 created the
"minicomputer" class.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Wed Feb 26 2003 - 14:53:00 GMT