00100	.require "good.pub" source_file;
00200	.ltr Dr. Arthur Samuel
00300	CSIRO
00400	Division of Computing Research
00500	P. O. Box 1800
00600	Canberra City, A. C. T.
00700	Australia 2601
00800	
00900	Dear Art:
01000	
01100	.fac single space; preface 1;
01200	I apologize for being so very slow in responding.  It's no excuse,
01300	but things have been fairly hectic here.  I did finally ask Data Disc
01400	and Ramtek to send you some literature.
01500	
01600	If the group there has some engineering capabilities, there is a plausible
01700	"do-it-yourself" display system similar to ours, but using core or MOS
01800	memories.  Such systems are still slightly more expensive than a disc
01900	system in large configuations, but they are not subject to disc crashes
02000	and can be assembled economically for just a few terminals.
02100	
02200	Peter Weiner at Yale has put together such a system using memories
02300	from Intel (3065 Coffin Road, Santa Clara, Calif.) that were designed
02400	for PDP-11 memory expansion.  These memories cost about .8 cents/bit,
02500	which works out to about $2200 per display (memories only) for 512 x 512
02600	resolution.  I believe that he is also using replicas of our keyboards.
02700	
02800	Raj Reddy has recently acquired some dispalys with one PDP-11 per
02900	console. He is also using our keyboards.  DEC is marketing a cheaper
03000	version of this system for about $10K each.
03100	
03200	John McCarthy is proposing to build a display system for the Computer
03300	Science Department that will talk to both the campus 360 and us.  An
03400	outline of his plan is enclosed.
03500	
03600	Your proposal to pay L.A. ↔ S.F travel expenses for Bruce Millar is fine
03700	with us.  We could pay an additional honorarium only if he has the kind
03800	of visa that permits it.
03900	
04000	Our funding picture is somewhat cloudy at present.  ARPA is holding us
04100	to the same dollar level as last time, which effectively reduces our
04200	support by the sizable amount of interim inflation.  In response, John
04300	has decided to reduce the scope of the ARPA project to hand-eye,
04400	matematical theory of computation, and theorem proving.  Machine
04500	translation and speech recognition, if they are to survive, must find
04600	separate support.  I expect you may want to give some attention to this
04700	when you return.
04800	
04900	Regretfully, we have decided to accept your offer to reduce your
05000	personal support.  Unless something changes, it will be 25% beginning
05100	this summer.  If you manage to round up some additional funding, of
05200	course, we can make the fraction whatever you would like.
05300	
05400	Another traumatic event occured a week ago.  We had asked for a final
05500	design review for Foonly, partly as a way of imposing a deadline on
05600	the designers and partly to preserve our capital so that it could
05700	be switched to another processor if the designers didn't come through.
05800	Happily, they finished the design.  Then, to my surprise, Steve
05900	Crocker of ARPA told us not to build it on the grounds that the
06000	schedule had slipped.  Furthermore, he insisted that we give the
06100	money back and would not consider spending it on another processor.
06200	We are now trying to find alternate ways of paying for Foonly.
06300	
06400	Otherwise, things are normal here.  I look forward to your return.
06500	
06600	.verbatim
06650	
06675	
06700	Sincerely,
06800	
06900	
07000	
07100	
07200	Lester D. Earnest