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From: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Mainframes vs micros
Message-ID: <438@ima.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Jan-87 13:00:54 EST
Article-I.D.: ima.438
Posted: Mon Jan  5 13:00:54 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Jan-87 22:03:34 EST
References: <653@imsvax.UUCP> <196@unisoft.UUCP> <2839@gitpyr.gatech.EDU> <1416@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Reply-To: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine)
Organization: Javelin Software Corporation
Lines: 32
Summary: Don't rule things out too fast

In article <1416@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> tim@tomcat.UUCP (Tim Kay) writes:
>That is exactly the point!  There are people submitting to this newsgroup
>articles that claim that those same PCs (or their future models) will
>replace mainframes like the Cyber.

And for some purposes I'm sure they eventually will.  For example, the
real estate transfer records in Houston which comprise a multi-gigabyte
data base are maintained on a Britton-Lee data base machine with queries
being made from minimal PCs at 300 baud.  The performance is apparently
wonderful, since the size of the requests and responses tend to be small.
The largest procesor involved is a Z8000.  This is a job that a few years
ago would clearly have needed a mainframe, but doesn't any more.

It's true -- PC peripherals tend to be junk, and the software is worse.
(I can vouch for the software, I write it for a living.)  But it is all
evolving much faster than the mini or mainframe equivalent, so don't rule
anything out.  I put a Fujitsu Eagle on a PC over a year ago (and the idiot
software made me partition it as logical drives D: to O:) and I'm sure I can
do better now.  Real operating systems for PCs are gasping their way to reality
now (and before you sneer, remember the early days of VMS or, perish forbid,
OS/360) and will likely take off as users buy 386 boxes that can support
reasonable multitasking and protection.

Compare a current 386 box to the micro of 1977, and then compare a 3090
mainframe to the mainframe of 1977.  Which one has changed more?  Which one
has gained more power?  Which one would you bet on for 1997?

Apocalyptically,
-- 
John R. Levine, Javelin Software Corp., Cambridge MA +1 617 494 1400
{ ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
Where is Richard Nixon now that we need him?