The number I remember, but, if pressed, I wouldn't know all the specifics on what it ment was...
IBM 370/168.... $1,000,000 per MB. We had a 4 MB 168 which cost us a cool $6 million dollars. But I think that $6 Million was without a DAT box as the box was field upgraded later to support virtual memory. I say I don't remember all the specifics.....because I wasn't in those meetings. But I was a "viewer" of the specifications of the replacement box (I think it was an IBM 3083...didn't that come before the IBM 3030 line?). It was, initially, a week long process with IBM detailing how you wanted your mainframe built. Do you want floating point registers? How many? Here is what they cost... So memory wasn't as simple as, "I want 4 MB". It had to include "cabinets" and "wiring" and lights on the console for addressing. Not to forget, water cooling considerations and power units. The IBM would come back in a week or two, to say if you wanted "xxx" then we need to add in "yyy" and "zzz" and the cost is $$$. Or you can't have both "aaa" and "bbb". It seemed to take over a month to finally spec out what you wanted to order. So I assume that the $1 million per MB also included all the extra hardware that may or may not be necessary, depending on which megabyte increment it was. Tom Duerbusch THD Consulting >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10/7/2006 11:07 PM >>> Ok, this is obscure to the max, but: ISTR real core costing $1/byte. Someone else says: "$1 a byte was extrordinarily cheap for 1971. Ferrite core was going for up to $2 per BIT." Of course, he then goes on to talk about PDPs, so maybe he's talking about core made in Maynard instead of Mexico... Anyway: do any of the other old-timers remember anything about this? -- ...phsiii Phil Smith III (703) 476-4511 (home office) (703) 568-6662 (cell)
