To simplify what is really a very complex story, every manufacturer was faced with the same business decision: either to stay in computers for the long-haul and accept heavy short-term losses; or to sell out while the going was good. One by one the different companies made their decisions,, so that the merger wave of 1960-63 left just three UK computer manufacturers - ICT, English Electric and Elliott-Automation.

But this was not the end of the consolidation by any means, for in April 1964 the whole economic basis of the industry was transformed by the announcement of the IBM System/360 range of third-generation computers. It was estimated that the R&D spend for System/360 was of the order of $5 billion. At this point, all the mainframe manufacturers world-wide were forced into announcing computer ranges of comparable performance. | computer resurrection, vol1 #1, may 1990

bericht des außenpolitichen ausschusses über die regierungsvorlage (509 der beilagen): vertrag über die grundsätze, welche die tätigkeiten der staaten bei der erforschung und nutzung des weltraumes, einschließlich des mondes und anderer himmelskörper, regeln (614 beilagen) | nationalrat xi. gp. – 69 sitzung – 15.11.1967

der außenminister nannte es "den ersten weltraumvertrag der weltgeschichte". eine erhebende stimmung muss das g'wesen sein ... aber eigenltich bin ich ja auf der suche nach was irdischem.

1969: imp, interface message processor, sort of early router. price per imp $150.000, designed by bolt beranek &newman, bbn. a company that is still around today. still contractor of darpa? i have no idea.

1984: new kind of router for the nsfnet was needed. nsfnet inhaled arpanet and got itself inhaled later on by aol. the only companie that accomplished the spec for the switching gateways, as it was called back then, was - again - bbn; but their price was high: $250.000 for one router; with a discount from darpa you could get it for $180.000 ..

fuzzball, programmed by dave mills, made the game. One programmer in charge for the whole new network of networks, as nsfnet gets described. in fact one guy in charge of the internet backbone. he didn't get a ot of sleep during those days, dennis jennings says, at that time head of nsf.

i didn't ask for the price of snowball, but it must have been less than $10.000, because that was the price jennings felt is all right for campuses and regional networks and the backbone of nsfnet.

2007 cost of a cisco router: between $1,123.00 and $264.00 (i guess one would take a better one for something like a backbone ...)