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The "five computers" taken out of context might seem ridiculous but it is hard to believe that wouldnt have been obvious back then and so must have been underst
by posterboy 8y ago
The "five computers" taken out of context might seem ridiculous but it is hard to believe that wouldnt have been obvious back then and so must have been understood differently, e.g. five mainframes to connect to per terminal and/or diversion to discourage competition. And it's not qualified over time, so it might have meant the very near future.
... or five architectures, five development boxes and the rest restricted implementations, ie. five different co-processors e.g. for time table scheduling which were selling by the time already.
- lokedhs 8y agoThe Wikipedia page on Watson discusses attempts at finding the source for this quote, but explains that there seems to be no consensus on this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson It does quote Howard Aiken saying this in 1952: Originally one thought that if there were a half dozen large computers in this country, hidden away in research laboratories, this would take care of all requirements we had throughout the country Even though it's likely that Watson never made this particular statement, the sentiment that the statement itself carries was a real one, and certainly existed in the 40's. What would be interesting to know is when the shift happened from computers being seen as a niche tool to something that everybody would use.