" Maynard) (08/11/88)
Our company is currently looking at replacing our IBM 4341 and its load
of 10-year-old applications software. We've settled on an application
package, and that, in turn has settled the issue of which database to
use, and that, in turn, has narrowed our choices of machine to either
an IBM 4381-21 or a VAX 6220, based on our transaction volume.
The question for you architecture wizards is:
Which is better at the type of I/O intensive processing typical of
commercial DP? As much as the 370 architecture has been reviled, it does
do very well indeed at reading in a couple of thousand bytes, performing
some small amount of processing, and writing them out again. The
original VAX, with its processor-directed I/O, seems to me to be a bit
less capable in that area, but I understand that DEC has seen the wisdom
of dedicated I/O processors in a commercial environment.
Please check any anti-IBM or -DEC bigotry at the door when replying
(preferably by E-mail); I can't expand the selection of machines because
the software we've chosen won't run on anything else, and I need to give
management the best technical choice between the two. If you truly
believe that the VAX is the best for the job, please show me why, as my
experience for the past 7 years as an IBM systems programmer has been
good, and "big bad IBM" isn't what I saw. Similarly, if you think that a
VAX will fall flat on its face, tell me why technically, not because VMS
is a big bad hacked-up monster; if we go that way, I'll have to support
it anyway. This is, after all, the real world.
As I noted above, please E-mail responses; I'll summarize.
--
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC...>splut!< | Never ascribe to malice that which can
uucp: uunet!nuchat! | adequately be explained by stupidity.
hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!splut!jay +----------------------------------------
{killer,bellcore}!tness1! | Birthright Party '88: let's get spaced!