:PROPERTIES:
:CREATED:  [2026-05-24 Sun]
:ID:       00ab3a4d-e3de-5605-a67d-12935bb36ab5
:END:
#+title: Comparison with Symbolics Genera
#+filetags: :passepartout:history:symbolics:comparison:

| | Symbolics Genera (1980s) | [[id:28c46769-c14b-42aa-ac7a-69d310157f8f][Passepartout]] (2020s) |
|---|---|---|
| Lines | ~1,000,000 | ~21,000 (self-driving target) |
| Developer-years | ~10 years, large team | ~1 year, 1-3 devs |
| OS | Built from scratch in assembly + Lisp | Runs on Linux (free OS layer) |
| Hardware | Custom Lisp Machine (entire computer) | PCIe card (FPGA or Tenstorrent) |
| Market | $50K-$100K/seat | $5K-$50K/appliance |
| Scope | Full OS + environment | Cognitive agent + hardware acceleration |

The Symbolics comparison is instructive: they built a full Lisp OS from scratch. Passepartout runs on Linux, providing the OS layer for free. The hardware integration is a PCIe card, not a replacement of the entire host. The scope is dramatically smaller — ~2% of the code for a fraction of the functionality that matters most. This illustrates the fundamental principles of [[id:9af13fff-9725-542b-93b1-a555bc74ad72][Lisp economics]] — the cost of building a Lisp-based system has dropped by [[id:2cdca4b0-6b41-44b4-acb0-af21d0e27b00][orders of magnitude]] since the 1980s. The [[id:13e6ae54-2d24-5aa0-b1cd-a7e8e749aa70][Self-driving Lisp Machine]] is the modern analogue: a hardware accelerator rather than a complete computer.
