Hacker News Reader

What kinds of programs were available for this machine? I’m really curious what kind of complexity was it capable of running.

View on HN

It's been said on previous YT videos - the system probally ran civil engineering calculations for building bridges and roads. They may have even been for work in Maryland (the state) where the Bendix 'lives' - at the System Source Museum outside of Baltimore MD. It's down in Texas to get fixed by Usagi.

I'm curious about the economics of this machine.

Wikipedia says it could be rented for $1485/mo, and the average salary in 1956 was $3600 or $300/mo, so it would have to replace 5 people (engineers must have earned more), if you don't count the extra cost of software, power, and maintenance.

I remember from a book on Richard Feynman that a classroom full of bright students was about as fast as the computer the Manhattan Project got, except, of course, the computer didn't get tired.

Not really a computer though - they didn't exist in the USA at the time. If I remember correctly it was a series of IBM calculating devices chained together.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com