Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!gatech!cuae2!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!convex!convexs!rotheroe From: rotheroe@convexs.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Mainframes vs micros Message-ID: <119200003@convexs> Date: Tue, 30-Dec-86 09:20:00 EST Article-I.D.: convexs.119200003 Posted: Tue Dec 30 09:20:00 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 1-Jan-87 00:35:53 EST References: <653@imsvax.UUCP> Lines: 22 Nf-ID: #R:imsvax.UUCP:653:convexs:119200003:000:1089 Nf-From: convexs.UUCP!rotheroe Dec 30 08:20:00 1986 > It appears that the new 32-bit microcomputers will have the > CPU power of many smaller mainframes. The weakest link will be > I/O. The disk access is much too slow for any moderate number of > users. Although minisuper, main supermini, and minis will always be with us (and at any given time the current models of them will be much more powerful than the current micro's), one has to wonder how something like a 68030 running at (guessing) 25MHz with (say) 128MByte memory would compare. If almost everything can fit in memory at a time, I/O speed is less of a worry. Such a micro could easily serve a dozen (or more) users, each running a (relatively) large job, and almost never have to go to disk. We will have to wait and see what happens, and until that time I'll stick to minisupercomputers. Dave Rotheroe {allegra, ihnp4, uiucdcs, ctvax}!convex!rotheroe "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the Hal plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the twelfth of January, 1992." 2001 & 2010 (book only for 2010)