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XX-1169E-46-1

August 1971

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Document:	710809 RSX Industrial Product Line
Order Number:	XX-1169E-46
Revision:	1
Pages:	7
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp15/memos/710809_RSX_Industrial_Product_Line.pdf

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. ~ ~ omo

INTEROFFICE

MEMORANDUM

TO: Nick Mazzarese

Win- Hindle
cc: Operations Committee
Bob Mc.~.nQj~'''''~_i'~''''~
SUBJ:
.

DATE:

August 9, 1971

FROM:

AI Devault

DEPT:

~·';'~~USTRIA~DUCT LI NE

'~""...-

During the reorganization early in July, Nick asked me to study RSX-15 as an industrial
. product in depth. I promised to have an answer to him by August 15. I have arrived at
my conclusions earl ier than that, after a concerted effort to remain open minded on this
subject.
I bel ieve that the investment required to make RSX-15 an industri a I, product far exceeds the
benefit to the corporation in the short term and definite Iy, is a bad investment rn the long
term. (Ref. P & L statement, table 1).
An attempt to define the product was made at
our Industrial Council Meeting of July 28 with the following result.
1. RSX - 15 Industrial is a PDP-15 system with control processor and peripherals and
at least one of the following peri pherals.
o.
b.
c.
d.

UDC
AFC
AD-15 (ADF-15)
Special Industrial FrontEnd

2. Sates of these systems for _~se in production- development {pilot plant} as opposed to
product research {Laboratory} and system installed in production appl ications in
plants.
The facts are as follows.
1. Only 2 of the 22 RSX sales in FY71 could possibly be construed as industrial in
nature based on our definition.
2. Although the hardware (AFC, UDC, AD-15) is complete and documented, the general
RSX software is not. Phase II of RSX was planned {by me} to be cut back, but customer
commitments by the PDP-15 product I ine do not allow th is. (Background/foreground,
task protection, background batch .{Goodyear, AFC/UDC handlers, Power Fail, improved
FORTRAN,' and-- many' others}. The programming department estimates that over $100 K
is necessary to· honor these commitments.
3. No tra ined industria I sa les force.
The rna iority of th~ Q 1 and Q2 so les expense
money must be spent in training. For a product with 1 1/2 to 2 years to Iive this is
a bad investment.
4. The original budget as submitted did not include the shared PDP-15 engineering (96
proiect) money. This significantly changes the contribution picture. (Reduction
from 20.8% to 14. 9 %)
DEC 5-1043-D

Memo to: Ni ck Nk~zza rese

-2-

August 9, 1971

.5. Examination of the shipments and backlog basedo.n ground rules_ establi~hed
with Nick result in $358 K Table 2 (not all shippclble in Q1) rather than

> $900 K as contained in the accounting backlog.
6. Bookings projections (see table 3 sales activity) and backlog do not indicate anywhere near the bookings level in the original budget. Even in co·nducting surveys
with individual salesmen have fai led to produce any optimism. Attached are two
budgets. One revised by me as of 7/26/71, the other my best guess of 8/2/71 •
A conflict is appclrent in bookings since a product called LAB RSX exists. (I believe the
budget for that product is included in the PDP-15 budget.) Bookin.gs wi II end up be ing
an armed camp confl ict with th is product.
PROPOSAL

1. RSX-15 Industrial ceases to exist as a product to be handled by the Industrial Group.
All RSX sales be handled by the PDP-15 product line.

2. All engineering expenses and peoplebe allocated to the PDP-11 Industrial efforts
(RSX-ll B, C, and D). This should help speed up those products to the marketplace.
3. The marketing expenses be allocated to the Industrial group to insure that RSX-ll
products meet the market needs.

4. All advertising be curtai led and the expense defrayed.
5. Any other fixed expenses "solety for -RSX-15 industrial be dropped, and the product
sold .only in the Lab area.
6. No support for RSX comes from the Industrial group with the exception of passing on
leads and opportunities. Some engineering assistance will be necessary to support
the AFC-UDC equipment but must be charged to the PDP-15 product line.

In summary, I believe that this is not a good invesfment because of its almost non-existent
short and long term return. If the decision is made to retain this product in the industrial
area, I will not manage the pro~uct because of my strong feelings that th~ resources should
.
be applied in other industrial areas.
~

. -0 ....

TABLE 1

FY 72
REVISED RSX-15 INDUSTRIAL BUDGET
Q1

Q2 .

TOTAL

(1 )

BOOKINGS (NET)

512

1060

750

1300

3622

(2)

NOR·

509

545

1091

781

2927

(3)

GROSS MARGIN

209

250

,543

386

1388

47.5%

(4)

PRODUCT LINE MKTG

3.2 0/0

(5) SELLING

114

376

12.9 %

(6) A & SP

. 7

1.3 %

(7)

P/L ENGR.

113

120CD \,,'

110*

100 *

443

15.2 %

(8)

CONTRIBUTION

(4)

(2)

306 '

139

439

14.9 %

$174 K NET REDUCllON IN CONTRIBUTION

CD Software increase, ~ombined with shared PDP-15 Engineering red'ucttons
*

Estimated

REVISED 7/26/71

TABLE 2
RSX-15 INDUSTRIAL BACKLOG

(BY ACc;0UNTING RECORDS)

VALUE

CUSTOMER
'/

IND. HARDWARE

MARKET

$226,004

CSS

IND.

F. O. A

$84,628

UNK

UTRUST

$77,010

UNK

CHI. BRIDGE

$38,700 *

CSS'

IND.

UK GAS BOARD

$75,040

IND.

$275,900

Commercial

YES

Resea rc h/Ph ys i cs

$93,532

YES

IND.

$145,685

UNK.

P.P. G

(2)

(3)

TRANSAFILE

$200,690

DESY Hamburg

•

(BY PDP-15 RECORDS)

!.--/ SOLVAY·
SAAB

(2)

TRUE BACKLOG

(Not all shippable in Q1)

P.P.G .

$226,004·

CHI. BRIDGE

$38,700

SOLVAY

$93,532
$358,236

SHIPMENT BUDGET Q1

$509 K

TABLE

FY 72

RSX INDUSTRIAL

Revised 8/4/71

Q1 .
(1 )

BOOKINGS
(NET)

.(2) .

NOR

(3)

. GROSS MARGIN

TOTAL

.....' .250

375

600

750

1975

.200

250

375

600

1425

11'9

178

285

677 .

(4)

PRODUCT LINE MARKETING

(5)

SELLING

114

376'

(6)

A & SP

. 10

37·

(7)

PRODUCT LINE ENGINEERING

113

120

110

100

443

(8)

CONTRIBUTIONS

(118 )

( 133)

(59)

(272 )
.. ,

TABLE

RSX

SALES ACTIVITY
-

CUSTOMER

SALESMAN

!
."

COMMENTS

DUPONT

Ken Stevens

Savannah River

Atlanta

SANDIA

Cecil Kimberling

RK15 disk cartridge
Comp. SEL 810B
A Iready bought PHA/RSX
system
(No- bid 7/30/71)

Albuquerque

Ind. Application
\,~ No DEC Front End

: (research?)

ARMSTRONG

Bob Heidel
Ph i lade Iph ia
•

System Responsibil ity
Required for Hardware and
Pattern Recognition Software
(research)

LABORELEC

Michel Dawance
Brussels

Power Network Distribution
OEM: Landis & Gyr (Zurich)
Comp. Westinghouse - ACEC
Ferranti
TWX to John Naples

GENERAL MOTORS
(Cadillac)

Marty Peters
Ann Arbor

1130 Replacement
Spec Difficult

MONSANTO

Lee Saylor
Chuck Smith
Houston

UDC - AFC Equipment
Special Discount
13.5% discount on $132 K
system, same for follow ons

CORNING

Bill Gabrielson
Rochester
(Research)

. ...

...

. ..

Hamilton Standard

Dave Cotton
Connecti cut

FORD MOTOR CO.

Maury Katzman

Conflict with RSX Lab?
(Research)

TABLE 4 continued
SALESMAN

CUSTOMER
ESSO RESEARCH
New Jersey

Tom Duffy

COMMENTS
Possibly handled by Alex
La batos now.
(research)

CORNELL Aeronautic Lab
Buffalo

AI Olheft
Rochester

RSX Industria I ?
Problem areas:
- special interface to H-316
- RK15 cartridge
- swappaing a la Rick Cook
(research)

GENERAL ELECTRIC
Lynn

Dan Riordan
Waltham

: Has been going on for more
than a year.

SNAM PROGETTI

Aldo Meneghell i
Milan

Quote iust came in July 14

AGIP Group

Italy

CLEVELAND WATER

Bob Greenbaum

DEPARTMENT

Cleveland

SUN OIL
'Dallas

Lar ry Alexander. .

P.O. by Dec 1971 ?

WESTERN ELECTRIC
Denver

Dick Hill

No Information

WADCO

Dick Eppler
Seattle

Reactor Automat ion
Physics ?
Lab RSX?
Ql - Q2 possible
(research)

...... -