Some fellows from M.I.T. told me that they had visitors from Minneapolls Honeywell who said they had a PDP-1 Computer but didn't have any programs. People are playing Space War and are having a good time at it, but they are looking for some programs which are a little more useful. This was not given in a spirit of criticism of DEC but I just wanted to ask you to be sure that they did get all the programs that we do have available.
John Ward of the Systems Group at M.I.T. has several interesting projects which I would like to have you look into. We can probably get a lot out of working with them on the projects and I think we can be quite helpful to them.
They are interested in the Conic line drawing scope that Ivan Sutherland is proposing but they have a competitive system which they have started working on which they feel is even more practical. This uses pulse rate analog. They also want to add an oscilloscope to the 709 and have it so that it can be added to the 7090. This is part of the computerated design program which is supported by the Air Force.
Mark Connelly has been for years working on analog digital hybrid systems for aircraft simulation. We have a copy of a report which he wrote some time ago describing this. This got wide distribution and has made our computer rather popular in the industry. We sold one to Minneapolis Honeywell because of his work and several manufacturers have included our computer in their bids because of Mark's work. Mark is adding multiply and divide to our computer at M.I.T., and would like to expand the memory. He is also going to add an analog computer in the input which he will get from Philbrick Associates.
A good part of this system will be pulse rate analog units which they have designed. I have offered to package these units for them inexpensively because we have learned quite a bit. I would like to have you learn as much as you can about their system so that we can be helpful and that we can find out whether we should do extensive work in this or not.