brandon@tdi2.UUCP (12/29/86)
Quoted from <1373@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> ["Re: Many Questions/ some answers"], by news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Usenet netnews)... +--------------- | >allowing them to challenge minis and mainframes. And IBM? They | >invented the PC/DOS game and now they can't even play their own game | >successfully and the game is threatening to destroy their big Fortune | >500 mainframe business. Kind of like letting the genie out of the | >bottle. | | Next, I can't see how PCs are competing with minis and mainframes. An | 80[23]86 at 8 or even 16Mhz still doesn't pack a fraction of the | computing power of a Vax 11/780. And, for the work I do, a Vax is | a small machine. A 3090/400 is roughly 50 times as powerful. +--------------- An article I read in Datamation (pre-386) stated (from memory; this is not the exact quote): ``if IBM produces a machine more powerful than the AT, it will be in competition with its own System/36 line'' -- I think it was the /36, it may have been the /1 or /3, I'm not familiar with IBM's mini line. Anyway, the 386 is on its way. Frankly, I doubt that IBM will sell 386 machines, since they will then be in competition with themselves, and IBM won't want to compromize its mini sales. Given this, I suspect that people at IBM, upon hearing about the 80386, tore their clothes, shaved their hair, and put on sackcloth. The demise of the low-end IBM mainframe seems imminent. So much for IBM; their 1979 bombshell just blew up in their own offices. ++Brandon -- ``for is he not of the Children of Luthien? Never shall that line fail, though the years may lengthen beyond count.'' --J. R. R. Tolkien Brandon S. Allbery UUCP: cbatt!cwruecmp!ncoast!tdi2!brandon Tridelta Industries, Inc. CSNET: ncoast!allbery@Case 7350 Corporate Blvd. INTERNET: ncoast!allbery%Case.CSNET@relay.CS.NET Mentor, Ohio 44060 PHONE: +1 216 255 1080 (home) +1 216 974 9210
ward@chinet.UUCP (ward) (12/31/86)
Regarding article about IBM feeling a 386 may impact the S/36, as mentioned by Brandon Allbery - if anything, IBM has 'boosted' the idea of the low- to middle-ground mainframe, with the introduction of the 9370 - a S/370 architecture in a box as small as - well not sure, - a filing cabinet at least. This could open the door to some interesting "cooperative processing" because these boxes will continue to have better communications and larger disks (with no 32MB limitations, ;-) than the PC. -- Ward Christensen ihnp4!chinet!ward
rwwetmore@watmath.UUCP (01/08/87)
In article <989@chinet.UUCP> ward@chinet.UUCP (Ward Christensen-) writes: >Regarding article about IBM feeling a 386 may impact the S/36, ... > ... the 9370 - a S/370 architecture ... > ... these boxes will continue to have better communications and larger >disks (with no 32MB limitations, ;-) than the PC. > I thought the 32Mb disk limitation was a DOS limitation built into the IBM bios. The Unix implementations I know of don't have this, and there are numerous bios enhancements such as by Golden Bow and On-Track which circumvent the limitations for DOS. Now that reasonable operating systems exist, and clones have surpassed the 6 MHz IBM limitations, PC-AT's and 286 XT's are showing their true power. IBM should be concerned about these non-proprietary systems. Ross W. Wetmore | rwwetmore@water.NetNorth University of Waterloo | rwwetmore@watmath.waterloo.edu Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 | {clyde, ihnp4, ubc-vision, utcsri} (519) 885-1211 ext 3491 | !watmath!rwwetmore