Digital PDFs

XX-42AE8-E0-1

October 1970

5 pages

Original

0.4MB

Document:	701002 PDP-15 Review
Order Number:	XX-42AE8-E0
Revision:	1
Pages:	5
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp15/memos/701002_PDP-15_Review.pdf

OCR Text

.maoma
SUBJECT:

OCT 6 1970
INTEROFFICE

PDP-15 Review

TO:

Bob Mcinnis

cc:

Stan Olsen
Ron Smart
Larry Portner
[Ken Olsen

MEMORANDUM

DATE:

October 2, 1970

FROM:

Ted Johnson

DEPARTMENT:

Sales, 5-3

I have asked several salesmen to review certain products. This one by
Vern Poulter, our Salt Lake City District Manager, was received and looks
very thorough and thoughtful.

mr
Enclosure

iNTEROFFICE

MEMORAr'JDurv1

DATE:

September 23,

FROM:

Vern Poulter
Salt Lake City

1970

SUBJECT:

TO: Ted Johnson
CC: John Len9

DEPARTMENT:

Sales

Joh~ Leng asked me to prepare a report on the PDP-IS and how
we can improve its sales.
In order to understand the PDP-IS
market, I first surveyed all PDP-lS and PDP-9 installations.
I included the PDP-9 because they are essentually the same product. Then I talked to 10 of the sales people and all of the
district managers.
This gave a general feeling for the product,
its weaknesses and strengths, as viewed by the sales people.
It also turned up an interesting fact that I don't believe I
understand w~11 enough to comment on.

The general observations are as follows:

1) Experience with other DEC products, and DEC's good reputation-have been the main factors in making sales.
A
review of present (Sept. 70) installations bears this
idea out.
2)- Customers are very happy with the product (with a few
not~able exceptions).

3) It appears the software has helped in sal~s yet has contributed to losses. Taking the hardware and software
as a system, it is awkward and expensive in general purpose computing, yet i t is successful in specific, dedicated applications7 physics and graphics appear to be
top of th~ list.

4) The Fortran Compiler is one of its weakest points.

S) Taking the software and hardware as a system, it appears
the PDP-IS is to expensive aSrla "mini", yet the system
preforms -more like a "mini" Iya medium sized machine.
6) I believe both salesmen and managers had a general feeling of frustration with the product.
7} The product lias shown a 'high degree of acti vi ty in the
past.! yet, there is at present, a total lack of customer
generated interest ie "Bingo Cards" ..

OiGiTAL
:OtCS-·H'~43-A

EQU!PMENT

CORPORATION.

MAvr'''ARO.

1\1\4SSACHLiSETTS

These observations were arrived at by abstracting the COmmon de-nominators out of the interviews.
I hope these observations ar~,.'
objective and not largely my personal feeling.
A review of current installations revealed that the PDP-IS usually was sold as a result of a very good relationship between
DEC and the customer. Most of the current PDP-IS installations
are at locations where a PDP-9 has been used.
The PDP-8 seems
to be the second most popular forrunner.
Salesmen, in general,
feel this is also true of the orders we have received but not yet
installed.
Customers are very happy with the PDP-IS hardware.
It is very
reliable as a product.
There were some complaints about software and Maynard support but no more than would be expected.
Current customers seem to be very willing to recommend the PDP-15
and DEC. We really' should capitalize on this.

Now to th~ real crux of the problem.

That of software, hardware,
and how it works as a system.
I made the statement earlier that
the software is both an asset and a debit.
The way this works
out is as follows:
The PDP-IS software system works very well
withJsingle user.
It is very good in developing applications
for which the machine is to be dedicated.
This, as it turns out,
is the type of use at most of the present installations.
However,' when you view th~ sys tern as a general purpose machine including Fortran, systems of 16K words of core are required.
This puts the equipment in a price range where the customer would
like to have a classic BATCH system in order to prepare programs off line. The monitor really doesn't allow this. As expressed by one of the salesrnen~ "The software feels like a mini,
while its priced as a moderate sized system.
1I

The 18 vs 16 bit argument works well in graphics, physics, real~i::tc work and where the customer has a fetish about that SQrt
of thing, but as a general purpose computer, those extra two
bits really can't be counted on (no pun intended) ..
The Fortr.an, which has been a reason for losing, is really very
slow.
(It makes the 800 usee core look more like 2.5 usee.)
This should be improved for general purpose work..
An improvement would also help in the RSX effort and graphics.
The speed
of Fortran becomes a significant factor in both these cases.. I
would like to propose that
concider hardware floating point
to give us the speed.
This would enable us to pass the cost on
as a hardware option, as opposed to a change in software.

The District managers and salesmen seemed to feel frustrated
about the PDP-1S.
I think we would like to think of this product as a
large ?DP-f3I1. when in fact it is a much larger product and should be sold as such.
As mentioned earlier we really
II

need a faster operating Fortran and a better BAtTen before we
can really do it justice asa large machine ..
Managers felt the product was in trouble and the product line
group easy to deal with. The salesmen felt the product was
reasonably well off and the product line very hard to get along
with. On all other points, managers agreed with their salesmen; however, on these two, they are diametrically opposed. I
don't feel like I really understand the reason for this difference. It may be the managers are removed from the real world;
It may mean we are not really aware of problems and therefore
are not working to correct them; or it Jllay be that the problem
is being viewed from two points of view. The managers, for instance, expressed concern over lack of "Bingo Cards". Salesmen on the·otherhand made no mention of same.
Everyone wanted some new thing.
The reauests ranged from cheap
disks to lower cost in line printers, to inexpensive card punches,
to hardware floating point .
. These reauests, coupled with the differences of opinion mentioned
earlier,. appear to be causing some frustration.
I believe the
managers and product· line should work to open up communications
between the product line and the salesmen.
This should not be
in the form of product line "selling" the product to the sales. men,; . they are weary of this approach.
I would like to say a market direction such as "sell to t1}:e tra.ditional customer" would help in overcoming this frustration,
bowever,itappears that the "traditional customer" is one·with
a PDP-9 that likes DEC, and we may be running out of this type.

really believe better communication between product line and
salesmen, better training of salesmen so they really understalld
the scope of the product, and a system which can be usedrnore
in line with its cost, as mentioned earlier, will go a long way ..
in overcoming this frustration.
-I also detected a general feeling of no excitmenttowards the

product, which could be symptomatic of the same problem that
·resultedin frustration.
.
">The final critique is one that has all managers very concerned.
"...::" is t;'le complete lack of customer generated interest such as '
'~Bingo C,~rdsH. We do not see any activity at this time and:it
is the consensus that the past activity was mainly with existing
customers_ The survey of installations tends to bear this out.
There appears to be two ways to overcome this: First, with satur(;cion coverage of each district by the salesmen; Second, by
~.. ~~Iore hard hi tting Public Relations campaign.
Several commented on the present ad campaign as not really generating

i~tbrest; It is too subtle and doesnlt project a meaningful
image.
I wi.sh I knew enough about Public Relations to suqgest
an alternate or what would project a "meaningful image". My'
incompetence on this point, however, should not dilute its importance.

In summary,

feel we should do the following:

1) Managers and product line should work more closely with
salesmen, thus avoiding misunderstandings. Managers and
. product line should work to overcome the feeling that
"product line" is hard to get al,ong with.
2) Managers should work to instill a feeling of a mat~re,
competent product; one in which the customer is generally very pleased (this point should be emphasized) .
They must al·so recreate a spirit of excitement with the
salesmen, although I donlt auite know how to bring this
about since what works with my people may not work with
otbers.
3) We should capitalize on the very successful use of the

PDP-IS in dedicated applications.
Physics appears to be
fitling up, but graphics and realtime work are still good
areas.
4) We should have a hardware floating point option, and a
better BATCH.
This would enhance the product and make
i t perform more in line with its cost when used ingeneral purpose scientific computing.
5) If item 4 is realized, we could concentrate on tne IBM
1130 type of user.
I feel this is a very large market
in which the PDP-IS is not really being sold.
realize I did not give any specific recommendation of how to
create a auantum jump in sales that would be felt in the near
future.
I believe that I speak for the district managers when
I stat~ that we really don't know how this could be done beyond the five items mentioned. I would like to follow up on
this question and see if the passage of time has allowed our
creative thinking to produce anything after it was stimulated.
I