That's when the cost of digital computing dropped to the point a research grant or even just discretionary spending in a university department could pay for one
I've mentioned this before, but the PDP8 launched in the US about the same time as JCB launched their first (and arguably the first really practical and useful) backhoe loader in the UK, which was about three and a half grand at the time.
Can you imagine the paradigm shift with either of those machines? Not just it's possible to do that work, but you can do that work with *your own one*.
At some point someone has looked at a shiny new PDP8 or a JCB 3C in the showroom and gone "you know what, I'm just going to buy one", and got the chequebook out.
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I've mentioned this before, but the PDP8 launched in the US about the same time as JCB launched their first (and arguably the first really practical and useful) backhoe loader in the UK, which was about three and a half grand at the time.
Can you imagine the paradigm shift with either of those machines? Not just it's possible to do that work, but you can do that work with *your own one*.
At some point someone has looked at a shiny new PDP8 or a JCB 3C in the showroom and gone "you know what, I'm just going to buy one", and got the chequebook out.
That's an amazing parallel. So much to think about how it changed dynamics of work replacing manual ditch digging and wheelbarrows.