¿the impetus of so called computer open systems? for sure an attempt to circumvent the "onerous pricing policy" of ibm in the mainframe market and it sounds reasonable that it was an effort to reduce the cost of computer equipment for the user - then data processing departments of large companies, but what does it have to do with stereo?

The "plug-compatible" movement eventually wound its way through the market and the courts, but before it concluded it established several of the fundamental concepts that were to drive open systems. To begin, the plug-compatible movement set in place the most enduring mental image of emerging open systems computing: The "stereo concept". Its proponents argued that a component stereo audio system was a model for the design of data processing (dp) systems, since its various components were designed to interoperate, and interoperation was guaranteed by standardized interfaces ... | carl f. cargill, evolution and revolution in open systems, standardview 1994