ABSTRACT
In late 1967, electrical engineer Ed de Castro stood before the DEC Operations Committee, the company’s main decision-making body, and attempted to sell its members on a radical new product idea. At the time, DEC found itself in a delicate period of transition. In 1964, the company had launched its first high-end computer system, the PDP-6, a $300,000 machine optimized for time-sharing. Designed by Gordon Bell and championed by company co-founder Harlan Anderson, the machine proved too ambitious for the small company and became an expensive flop due to a faulty architecture. 1
