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Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2018 11:25:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
Subject: Re: [TUHS] core
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    > From: "John P. Linderman"

    > 4 bucks a bit!

When IBM went to license the core patent(s?) from MIT, they offered MIT a
choice of a large lump sump (the number US$20M sticks in my mind), or US$.01 a
bit.

The negotiators from MIT took the lump sum.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was corrupt folklore, but I later
found it in one of the IBM histories.

This story repets itself over and over again, though: one of the Watson's
saying there was a probably market for <single-digit> of computers; Ken Olsen
saying people wouldn't want computers in their homes; etc, etc.

      Noel