Isolation of Small and Large PDP-11s

This 1973 interoffice memorandum from Gordon Bell to Ken Olsen, Phil Laut, and John Fisher argues for the immediate and complete isolation of small and large PDP-11 product lines. Bell cites several justifications, including historical precedent with the PDP-6, the historically lower profitability of mid-range machines, the current imbalance in software support favoring the 11/45 at the expense of the 11/05, the upcoming competitive pressure from 32-bit machines, and the operational complexities inherent in supporting diverse system sizes.