(I need some help answering this homework discussion problem)

Read the attached article about the first IBM personal computer. Why do you think the price tag for this first computer was $55,000? Would this high price tag have anything to do with fixed or variable costs, or number of units produced?

The IBM 610 Auto-Point Computer was designed in the port-holed attic of Watson Lab at Columbia University by John Lentz between 1948 and 1954 as the Personal Automatic Computer (PAC) and announced by IBM as the 610 Auto-Point in 1957!. The IBM 610 was the first personal computer, in the sense that it was the first computer intended for use by one person (e.g. in an office) and controlled from a keyboard?. The large cabinet contains a magnetic drum, the arithmetic control circuitry, a control panel, and separate paper-tape readers and punches for program and data (according to one former user, Russ Jensen, "The machine was programmed by a punched paper tape which duplicated itself in order to perform extra passes through the code". The IBM electric typewriter printed the output at 18 characters per second; the other device was the operator's keyboard for control and data entry, which incorporated a small cathode ray tube (two inches, 32x10 pixels) that could display the contents of any register. A "register" is any of 84 drum locations (31 digits plus sign). The control panel provides additional programming control (e.g. for creating subroutines, typically for trigonometric or other mathematical functions). Price: $55,000.00 (or rental at $1150/month, $460 academic). 180 units were produced. Lentz said of the 610, "A novel approach to computer programming and control, used in the IBM 610 computer, allows the solution of complex problems by an operator whose only previous experience with computing has been the desk calculator. The machine's command structure is designed so that the operator can at all times communicate with the computer by a series of short sentence-type instructions closely resembling the steps of manual arithmetic solution. A type of floating-decimal operation called the 'auto-point' mode permits entry of data into storage locations with automatic positioning of the decimal point, without elaborate programming. The decimal point is automatically re-positioned during subsequent computation" http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/610.html MacBook Pro