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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (164733)	4/30/2002 2:13:45 AM
From: tcmay	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

"I did appreciate your expose on the poisson distribution for approximating chip yield. I was using a somewhat more primative estimator for the number of good die per wafer so I will play with your formula. The HP calculator it itself was quite a luxury back in the mid seventies. At UCSB they stuck us in a room with a bunch Wang calculators with what appeared to be neon displays. Those who could afford an HP-45 had a definite advantage." Small world. I was at UCSB 1970-74. My first ArpaNet account was on the primitive storage tube graphics terminals then installed in the Chemistry building (and probably in North Hall). HP calculators were reasonable in price by '75, though. My first was an HP-25C, which I recall paying $175 for. It was my constant companion. In 1976 I got an HP-67, which I practically wore the keys out on, doing thousands of calculations of radioactive decays, flux rates, stopping powers, and so on. It repaid its $395 price over many times. In 1978, my first PC, a kit-built Processor Tech Sol. (I wish I could say it repaid its $1200 back, but, frankly, it didn't. My lab was already using a PDP-11/34A, and I was about to get a VAX-11/780, so a measly 8088-based PC was not much by comparison. I did add a couple more calculators. An HP-41C in 1979, a couple of smaller HPs later, and an HP-48sx as my last major full-blown RPN calculator. Now I use Mathematica for calculations. --Tim May