Jerry Feldman wrote: > On Wed, 9 Jan 2008 16:09:07 -0500 > "Ben Scott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Packard Bell? *Packard Bell*? > It is a common practice to acquire brands. Actually, the original > Packard Bell manufactured radios and was acquired in the 1960s. The PC > company of ill repute (well deserved ill repute) bought the name in > 1986. It never fully went out of business, and is now part of > Acer/Gateway. Hmm. I don't recall their radio days, but in 1962 they produced computers. The Packard Bell 250 used a magnetorestrictive delay line memory (basically audio pulsed running around many turns of stiff wire). My father had one where he worked at Bailey Meter and was finishing a magnetic drum based BCD process control computer that was the first commercially successful multiprocessor. He claimed it was so easy to program that a 12 year-old could do it, and then taught me how. Unfortunately I hand a mental block between the numeric machine code that was clear to me vs. the textual instructions of the PB250 and didn't pursue programming until I got to college. Kind of a pity, writing PB 250 assembly code would have been great fun. See http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/G-Bell-91-US-mini-1968-to-1982.html http://www.digitpress.com/faq/computerlist.txt Core memory didn't revolutionize the computer field until a few years later (a dollar a byte), and it took a decade before semiconductor memory triggered the next revolution with 1 Kb dynamic RAM. IIRC, the original Packard-Bell name was chosen not because it was founded by those people or companies, but to come up with a name that had instant recognition. That certainly wouldn't happen today without lawsuits! The second coming I think came from (I forget the name) buying rights to the name from whatever comapny wound up with the original's assets to start a new company with instant name recognition but to avoid the lawsuits that would have come from a new name. I think both companies were privately held during their heydays. Hmm, I should've checked this first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Bell -Ric Werme _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
