among different layouts and among specifications. While in principle these arrays were very complex, the use of a spatial layout as a mental model and maintenance of consistency in the order of parameter specifications allowed a simple, predicable way of providing access.

We completed our design specification on time and almost within budget and delivered it to Kurzweil in March 1983, fully expecting to hear back from them so that we could answer questions and/or iterate our design. However, as is so often the case with consulting contracts, especially th ose with cash-hungry startup companies, we never heard from them again. The commercial version of the Kurzweil 250 was officially announced at the 1984 summer show of NAMM, the International Music Products Association, with a price of $10,715 plus options —just a bit above Kurzweil’s original price point. It was manufactured commercially until 1990 with several follow-on versions. Of course, comparable synthesizers today are available even below his

original thousand-dollar target price. The version introduced appeared, at least superficially, to conform largely to our original specifications, but it had capabilities well beyond those we provided for, including midi- and Apple Macintosh connections. At some point, the small display was replaced with a two-line, 48-character display.

In 1990 Kurzweil Music Systems was sold to Young Chang, a large Korean musical instrument company. It remains active as a division of Young Chang today as one of the market leaders in com-puter-based musical instruments, marketed in more than 40 countries.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dick Pew spent 11 years
at the University of Michigan and the past 33 years
at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, MA, where his
current employment status is “part-time irregular.”
His interests have spanned a range of human factors
activities, from HCI to human performance model-
ing. At this stage of his career, history becomes an attractive topic.

DOI 10.1145/1409040.1409048
© 2008 ACM 1072-5220/08/1100 $5.00

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