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From: suhler@im4u.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Steve Chen resigning (was Re: Cray Research walkout)
Message-ID: <2184@im4u.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 2-Oct-87 00:35:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: im4u.2184
Posted: Fri Oct  2 00:35:54 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Oct-87 06:02:23 EDT
References: <2956@ames.arpa>
Reply-To: suhler@im4u.UUCP (Paul A. Suhler)
Distribution: na
Organization: Univ of Texas Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept
Lines: 14
Summary: Why Amdahl left IBM

In article <2956@ames.arpa> fouts@orville.nas.nasa.gov.UUCP (Marty Fouts) writes:
>According to a Cray press release, Chen's project was taking more
>money than Cray was willing to pay.  This is not an unusuall business
>decision.  Ask Dr. Amdahl why he left IBM sometime.

I heard Amdahl explain it in a talk back in '76 or '77.  It wasn't the
development costs so much as revenues.  With IBM's pricing structure,
they made less money the bigger the machine.  It reached a point where
if Amdahl had built and IBM had sold the machines he wanted to build,
IBM would have had many customers switch from lesser machines to the
faster, thus cutting total revenues.  The only way he could build
what he wanted was to start a company that had nothing to lose.
-- 
Paul Suhler        suhler@im4u.UTEXAS.EDU	512-474-9517/471-3903