[Reduce-algebra-developers] Quote from the REDUCE Newsletter number 10, September 1985

[Arthur N. <ac...@ca...>]

Back then Tony Hearn wrote
"In a paper I gave at the 1980 IFIP Congree. I prediccted that by the mid 
1980' it would be possible to obtain a complete compting system (both 
hardware and software) that could run programss like REDUCE for prices in 
the $10,000-$20,000 range. ..."

He goes on to look at the encouraging prospect of offerings below even 
$5000, and goes on to provide timings for running the main Reduce test 
(now alg.tst) on several dozen platforms.

I am noting this now because of the expected arrival of the US$35 + tax + 
p&p Raspberry Pi model B (www.raspberrypi.org/faqs) which is undoubtedly 
able to run Reduce, and despite its cost it will run the main test file a 
LOT faster than any of the systems listed in the old newsletter, and will 
provide more main memory than them too. You have to supply your own 
Keyboard and TV and hijack your mobile phone's charger and an SD card from 
your camera...

Gosh that test ran for amound a minute on a VAX/780, almost the definitive 
departmental server for a proper scientific group. It is hard even to 
measure its time now.

            Arthur