It’s All About Power - Inventing the PC - page 82

the memory shortage problem. The new software destined for
the 8080 CPU would dispose of bank switching altogether; the
8080 microprocessor could work directly with enough memory
to comfortably host even Ramer's York APL .
Day's and Ramer's reports show how difficult it was for early
microcomputer companies to anticipate the direction and rate
of growth of the semiconductor industry and, hence, to have a
well-developed business strategy that would translate the tech-
nological advancements offered by that industry into new op-
portunities in the educational, problem-solving, and business
sectors of the computer market.
The early software and hardware development decisions
made by MCM resulted in a remarkable product concept: the
MCM /70. But later decisions to make it an even more compel-
ling consumer electronics gadget not only delayed the comput-
er's introduction into the market but also made it difficult to
upgrade. Some of these choices seemed minor and inconsequen-
tial, such as the decision against installing an internal fan to
remove the excessive heat from the MCM /70's case generated
during the computer's operation and to seek alternative, “quiet”
solutions instead. The main motivation for doing so was the
desire to provide a user with a quiet operating environment. To
solve the thermal problem without the use of a “noisy” fan, all
the boards of the MCM /70 were packaged in iodized aluminum
enclosures, clustered (or sandwiched) together and mounted
on the back of the case. A large number of wires hung out of
this pack of clustered casings in various directions, connecting
the encased boards to the power supply, screen, cassette drives,
keyboard, and other components of the computer. To replace a
faulty PCB (printed circuit board), one had to remove the entire
pack of casings from the computer, dismantle it into separate
enclosures, peel the faulty board out of its aluminum enclosure,
put in a new one, and repeat the described operations in reverse