It’s All About Power - Inventing the PC - page 76

In Day's opinion, MCM viewed the TCF system as the com-
pany's possible entry into the lucrative small business com-
puter market. His main conclusion, however, was that not only
should the TCF contract be terminated and the money returned,
but that the part of MCM 's business plan oriented toward small
business system markets should also be re-evaluated in view of
the company's financial situation.
According to the estimates provided by Day, the prototype
development of the MCM /170 would be as expensive as that of
the MCM /70 and would take (under the most favourable condi-
tions) approximately a quarter of the development time of the
MCM /70. Furthermore, the MCM /170 simply could not be de-
rived from the MCM /70, as the TCF business system require-
ments assumed data storage and processing capabilities that the
MCM /70 could not provide, due mainly to the low speed of the
8008 processor.
While the $35,000 in seed money temporarily helped the
company's cash flow problem, it became clear that continuing
with the TCF contract would result in significant additional de-
velopment costs which would not be recovered until the first
TCF system was installed and working. In Day's opinion, the
company simply could not afford that, as cash was low for even
the completion of the production model of the MCM /70. MCM ,
he felt, should return the TCF advance and consider it not as
a loss but as seven or eight months of free financing. Other-
wise, the company was risking its entire future for the sake of
$35,000. “Devoting less than all our development resources to
the MCM /70 during the next 3-6 months,” wrote Day, “con-
siderably increases the risk of failing to get the /70 into volume
production.” Day continued his analysis with the call to reason.
There are only 3 things preventing us from doing what-
ever we want in new products; our ability to sell them,
to make them and to finance ourselves. I see us presently