NAGLE@SU-SCORE.ARPA (12/20/83)
From: John B. Nagle <NAGLE@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
[Reprinted from the SU-SCORE bboard.]
The goals of an effort funded by the military will be different
than those of an effort aimed at trade dominance. Intel stayed out of
the DoD VHSIC program because the founder of Intel felt that concentrating
on fast, expensive circuits would be bad for business. He was right.
The VHSIC program is aimed at making a few hundred copies of an IC for
a few thousand each. Concentration on that kind of product will bankrupt
a semiconductor company.
We see the same thing in AI. There is getting to be a mini-industry
built around big expensive AI systems on big expensive computers. Nobody
is thinking of volume. This is a direct consequence of the funding source.
People think in terms of keeping the grants coming in, not selling a
million copies. If money came from something like MITI, there would be
pressure to push forward to a volume product just to find out if there
is real potential for the technology in the real world. Then there would
be thousands of people thinking about the problems in the field, not
just a few hundred.
This is divirging from the main thrust of the previous flame, but
think about this and reply. There is more here than another stab at the
big bad military.