Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!ultra!shj
From: shj@ultra.com (Steve Jay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cdc
Subject: Re: Toll the bell, break the glasses
Message-ID: <1990Mar30.011719.13686@ultra.com>
Date: 30 Mar 90 01:17:19 GMT
References: <1545@amethyst.math.arizona.edu> <3792@tahoe.unr.edu> <186@csinc.UUCP>
Organization: Ultra Network Technologies
Lines: 34

rpeglar@csinc.UUCP (Rob Peglar) writes:

>Seems like Cybers are dropping like flies.

>But, I just wanted to ask - why, and why now?  Why not 5 years ago?

Where I used to be, Univerisity of Arizona, it became obvious about
5 years ago that the Cyber was not really economically viable.  The
main factors were increasing maintenance cost, and an ever growing
group of users who would/could not put up with the restricted
memory and obsolete software. 

At government funded installations, a major procurement to replace
a machine takes a long time...years.

Also, there was 17 years of accumulated applications running on it.
It takes a long time to get everyone moved off.  Curiously, at
the University of Arizona, the major administrative applications
(payroll, general ledger, registration) were done primarily on
the CDC system.  A Cyber 175 was actually a hell of a batch Cobol
machine.  It took many years of work to move to more interactive/
transaction oriented applications on other systems.  Payroll was
one of the last big ones to move.  If it wasn't for payroll, the
Cyber at University of Arizona would probably have died much sooner.

Also, a lot installations figure that a big machine will last about
10 years.  10 years ago is when a lot of the old time CDC sites
stopped buying new CDC machines.  Now is when the last batch is
dying of old age.

Steve Jay
shj@ultra.com  ...ames!ultra!shj
Ultra Network Technologies / 101 Dagget Drive / San Jose, CA 95134 / USA
(408) 922-0100 x130	"Home of the 1 Gigabit/Second network"