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From: amos@instable.UUCP (Amos Shapir)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Cost of Designing a New Computer
Message-ID: <666@instable.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Jan-87 03:17:53 EST
Article-I.D.: instable.666
Posted: Mon Jan  5 03:17:53 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Jan-87 21:35:45 EST
References: <950@husc6.UUCP>
Reply-To: amos%nsta@nsc.com (Amos Shapir)
Organization: National Semiconductor (Israel) Ltd.
Lines: 24

In article <950@husc6.UUCP> reiter@harvard.UUCP (Ehud Reiter) writes:
>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.
...
>New micro system software	-  100'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 system software	- 1000's of engineer man-years

You must be a hw engineer :-)  There's no reason that mini or mainframe
software would be an order of magnitude bigger than micro sw.
UNIX was written by 2 men over 2 years, and the same version ran on minis
& mainframes; on the other hand, if you consider *all* sw available for
the IBM PC it must have taken 1000s of man- sorry, person- years.

With many portable languages and environments available, it's not the size
of the hw, but the functionality that determines the effort required;
e.g. do you want just a small CP/M-size monitor, or a full-blown multi-user
commercial system?
-- 
	Amos Shapir
National Semiconductor (Israel)
6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel
(011-972) 52-522261  amos%nsta@nsc 34.48'E 32.10'N