CIA funding helped keep NeXT afloat in the 80s (wsj.com)

Article summary

The article discusses how CIA funding helped keep NeXT afloat in the 80s. The comments reveal that the article likely mentions a magic CPU upgrade story, which some commenters find hard to believe due to the technical limitations of the time. The actual content of the article is not available, but the discussion revolves around the possibility of NeXT receiving special hardware upgrades, such as accelerator cards or custom chips, to improve performance. The CIA's involvement in funding NeXT is seen as an example of government intervention in the tech industry.

Main themes

• CIA funding of NeXT
• Government intervention in tech industry
• Magic CPU upgrade
• Accelerator cards and custom chips
• Art and culture as propaganda
• Morality of government intervention
• Tech industry history and development

What commenters say

• Some commenters question the feasibility of a magic CPU upgrade due to the technical limitations of the NeXT hardware at the time.
• Others suggest that the upgrade could have been an accelerator card or a custom chip, such as the Motorola MC88100, which was a RISC CPU with a pipelined FPU.
• The CIA's funding of NeXT is seen as an example of government intervention in the tech industry, with some commenters arguing that it was a reasonable investment and others expressing concerns about secrecy and manipulation.
• The discussion also touches on the topic of government funding for art and culture, with some commenters mentioning the CIA's support for Abstract Expressionist artists as a form of propaganda.
• Some commenters argue that the ends justify the means, while others express concerns about the morality of government intervention in the arts and tech industry.
• The possibility of factory overclocks or custom chips being used to improve NeXT's performance is also discussed, with some commenters citing examples of similar practices in the industry.
• The CIA's involvement in the tech industry is seen as part of a broader pattern of government funding for research and development, with some commenters mentioning the role of the DoD in building Silicon Valley.