[taffronaut]

The UK government ran an initiative in the mid 1980s to get electronics CAD into every university and polytechnic. The institution I worked for got a lab of DN300 and DN500 workstations running various digital and SPICE-based tools. We used them for undergrad classes and also for some consultancy projects. They felt like a huge leap to us. To put it in perspective, our other labs at the time were either CP/M or mainframe terminals.

[nxobject]

In retrospect, did you think this initiative worked?

[rasz]

ARM, Argonaut Software (SuperFX), DIP Research Ltd. (Atari Portfolio, Sharp PC3000 ASICs), INMOS (which I wouldnt call a success), Technophone PC105 first real pocket sized cellphone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI6Uf-Of4fs).

There was a ton of high integration semi innovation coming out of UK in eighties, on par with Japanese.