On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 07:07:21AM +0100, nev young wrote: > I was thinking more along the lines of the UK having a manufacturing > base.
[...] I appreciate that there was a problem there, although I do wonder how long British manufacturing would have remained competitive, in view of some our past difficulties in manufacturing -- as you say, "by how much and for how long is any body's guess". I was largely thinking of the software industry, but there are bigger things to worry about! I'm also curious as to what constitutes 'success'. I suppose Sinclair (and Acorn) did succeed in pushing boundaries (and therefore met their own criteria for success), giving the UK a head start, but this work was not properly followed up. I would certainly argue that the £12 million that was invested in the C5 could have been better spent elsewhere. Perhaps revolutionising transport sounded like a good idea at the time! It's easy to pick on the C5, though. Whether wafer scale integration is/was worth pursuing is a more difficult question to answer... Cheers, -- Stuart Brady
