Re: Porting VMS versus building a new spacecraft

On 6/7/2024 8:36 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:

$ set response/mode=good_natured
 It occurred to me yesterday that Elon Musk has been able to build and
successfully fly (mostly) a new rocket and spacecraft in less time than
it has taken to port VMS to x86-64. :-)

Money is a good fuel for making things happen.
SpaceX has received a lot of money in funding.
Per wikipedia:
early - 100 M$ Musk + 100 M$ other + 800 M$ NASA
2015 - 1 B$ Google and Fidelity
2017 - 350 M$
2019 - 1.33 B$
2020 - 1.9 B$
2021 - 1.61 B$
I am willing to predict that if VSI has received billions
of dollars in funding then they could have gotten VMS x86-86
done faster.
VAX->Alpha was done by DEC when they were still one of
the biggest IT companies in the world. Alpha->Itanium
was done by HP when HP was one of the biggest IT companies
in the world.
Arne