🚀 go-pugleaf

> 
> 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.

The Commodore 128 Computer was built with the following resources:

Hardware:
	It took 3 HW Engineers about 9 months of work for the system level
	work.

Software:
	The internal BASIC and Kernal BIOS in the C128 took 2 SW Engineers
	about 9 months as well.  This involved upgrading and enhancing 
	a system written entirely in machine language.  Another SW
	Engineer took around the same 9 months to port CP/M to the system.

ICs:		 
	A total of 4 new ICs were required by the system.  One of these had
	been in development for over a year before the C128 project 
	started.  One IC designer continued on this chip for another 9
	or so months (this was a new design, the 80 column display chip).
	One IC designer worked about 3 months on a new device selection
	chip.  One final IC designer worked for about 9 months on the 2
	other chips, one of which (the memory management chip) was a 
	completely new design, the other (the 40 column/graphics chip)
	was an upgraded version of a previous design.  The work of these
	three Engineers could have been avoided if such chips were
	available and cost effective as off the shelf parts.

Other:
	PCB designers for system boards and IC emulators, case designers,
	manufacturing engineers, etc. 

This system took more man/years than I'd expect for a new design using
off the shelf parts, since there'd be many fewer chip related problems.
However, for a mass produced machine (about 1 million last year), such
parts would be too expensive.


> 
> Thanks
> 					Ehud Reiter
> 					reiter@harvard	(ARPA,UUCP)
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Haynie	{caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh

     "You can keep my things, they've come to take me home"
						-Peter Gabriel

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~