My classiccmp non-retirement :-)

[Bjørn Vermo]

On 20 Jun, 2005, at 14:04, William Donzelli wrote:

>> True.  But other computer makers of even lower stature have shown up
>> on the CC list, and in bitsavers.  Apart from the big ones, it seems
>> to be just a random process that determines which machines appear and
>> which ones do not.  For example, I can't think of any other reason why
>> Varian would show up in Al's archive and Philips would not...
>
> I doubt there were ever more than 100 Phillips machines in the US at 
> any
> given time. Perhaps in Europe they were more popular, but here they 
> were
> effectively not even a tiny speck in the minicomputer industry.

Philips (which is an entirely different company from Phillips) were 
much more imporant as makers of embedded computers than as makers of 
computers people know about.
My cousin used to work as an instructor in the norwegian navy, and he 
said the Philips computers were used in most of our Missile Torpedo 
Boats.

I suppose embedded systems easily end up as the forgotten branch of 
computers, even though they probably are both more numerous and more 
important than standalone boxes.

-- 
-bv