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by TheOtherHobbes
2476 days ago
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The germanium transistors used in Stretch simply weren't fast enough to meet the paper spec. The architecture couldn't do much to work around this. Cray at CDC used the newer and faster silicon transistors in the 6600. So did IBM's later System/360. In fact Cray funded the development of the fast silicon transistors at Fairchild with a $500k contract. https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/silicon-transi... IBM made the classic corporate mistake - sales over-promised and then told engineering to build something that couldn't be built. So Stretch became an involuntary R&D project instead of a commercial product. |
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