Roy Brown wrote:
>
> In article <[log in to unmask]>, Denys
> Beauchemin <[log in to unmask]> writes
> >Gentle HP 3000 Listers,
> >
> >This past week, I found out Microsoft is planning to spend US$ 1 billion on
> >the development of Windows NT.  That is $1,000,000,000 for the Brits in the
> >audience.

Talking about salary costs this number is actually not as high as
one would maybe expect, especially if you ask in which timeframe
it is going to be spent.

Hypothetical example:

100 R&D enginners * 100 k$ (incl. infrastructure) = 10 M$ per annum.
That would mean a 100 year commitment.
Now if Microsoft has x*100 R&D engineers, that's 100 years/x.

If they have 2000 engineers it's not all that impressive, but a
5 year commitment is probably impressive enough for Microsoft.

> Anyway, I calculate that Microsoft must be planning to spend
> #617,283,950.62 in our money as it currently stands. But how on earth
> can they know it so accurately? :-)

Must have claculated it on a 486 :-)

BTW: In German a "Billion" is 1E12 as well, seems some zeroes
got lost on the pilgrim father's ships.

Goetz.