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From: reiter@endor.harvard.edu (Ehud Reiter)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Cost of Designing a New Computer
Message-ID: <950@husc6.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Jan-87 15:34:44 EST
Article-I.D.: husc6.950
Posted: Sun Jan  4 15:34:44 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Jan-87 21:52:29 EST
Sender: news@husc6.UUCP
Reply-To: reiter@harvard.UUCP (Ehud Reiter)
Organization: Aiken Computation Lab, Harvard University
Lines: 27

I'm trying to get some order of magnitude estimates for what resources
are required to design a state-of-the-art "new" computer system.  I'm
currently using the following figures, and I was wondering what people
thought of them.

New micro using existing microprocessor and existing system software
				-    1's of engineer man-years
New microprocessor		-   10's of engineer man-years
Fab plant to build microprocessor - $100,000,000 of equipment
New micro system software	-  100's of engineer man-years
New supermini hardware		-   10's of engineer man-years
New supermini system software	- 1000's of engineer man-years
Port UNIX to new supermini	-    1's of engineer man-years
New mainframe hardware		-  100's of engineer man-years
New mainframe system software	- 1000's of engineer man-years

Notes:	A) The context is the question of how much would it cost a
protectionist country to develop its own "local" computer system.
	B) Please, no comments of the form that you developed an X for an
undergrad C.S. course.  I'm interested in the resources required to develop
state-of-the-art commercial grade products in a commercial environment.
	C) Any data on the cost of adapting application software to a new
hardware architecture is also welcome.

Thanks
					Ehud Reiter
					reiter@harvard	(ARPA,UUCP)