JF Ptak Science Books
A.J. Perlis’ and John Carrs’ “Characteristics of the Small-Scale Computers” looked innocent enough, 12″ tall and one folded piece of paper, and published in 1956, but there was a lot more to the simple publication than you’d expect from something so modest. The authors–John W. Carr III and Alan J. Perlis–were heavy hitters, and so I really wasn’t very surprised to see what they had done “inside”, though I was impressed and happy to see the data. Displayed on the 12×16″ sheet of paper are 15 data points on 14 computers, many of them classic/famous: the 650 IBM, UNIVAC, Elecom, Alawac. (Remember that when you’re looking at purchase price and monthly rental amounts that the 1956 dollar is equal to about $8.70 in 2015 dollars, so that $3275/month for the 650 would be about $30k. The $136k for the Datatron is about a million today.)
