Where do the next opportunities lie for savvy tech entrepreneurs?
By Denzil Doyle
Having just completed 50 years in the computer industry ( I joined Digital Equipment Corporation on March 21, 1963), I would like to reflect upon some of the major advances in the industry during that period and to speculate on those that we might witness in the next 50 years.
As for the past, by far the greatest advances have been in the cost and size of computer memory. In 1963, Digital sold a computer called the PDP-5 which was unique in that it used both core memory (4096 words of 12 bits each) and transistors ( 500,000 bits per second clock rate) as opposed to drums and vacuum tubes. Additional memory could be obtained by ordering a “Memory Extension Unit” for $10,000 and 4096 word blocks of memory at $10,000 each – all in 1963 dollars.
