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From: pf@diab.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: brash micros versus the Big Iron: not yet
Message-ID: <299@ma.diab.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Aug-87 04:07:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: ma.299
Posted: Thu Aug 27 04:07:27 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Sep-87 05:43:06 EDT
References: <622@winchester.UUCP>
Reply-To: pf@ma.UUCP (Per Fogelstrom)
Organization: Diab Data AB, Taby, Sweden
Lines: 31

With some interest i have watched the small "war" between as You call it
"micros" and "Big Iron".

If one looks back and just think about the past:

	1. "Yesterday" Big Iron was what supermicros are today. Yes
	    the price per "Mips (hate that term :-))" is much lower
	    then many years ago. But look what You can get for the
	    same ammount of monney that You paid for the Big Iron
	    "Yesterday" today. In a few year there will bee so called
	    10,20 and even 30 mips micro chips, that will be "very cheap".
	    But only because one type of processors improves (micros),
	    that does not mean that everything else stops. Just compare
	    "solid state memorys" vs "disk storage". And that's only
	    one example.

	2.  One other point that is interesting (my oppinion) is how
	    much easier it has become for people to access computers.
	    Compare "The Dark Ages" where computer installations was
	    so called "Closed Shops" whith the PC world today. And
	    by the way, just look how much power there is in an $995.
	    PC compared to the "$n*10e6" yesterday mainframes.

I don't think it's real fair to compare the raw power of a mainframe
system with a microprocessor chip, and then say that micros are so and so
much cheaper. Yes, they are cheaper if you only look at raw power, but
i think it must be seen in a bigger perspective (e.g. system level).

Well, the computer evolution rolls on and will probably not stop in our
age. New types of computers will show up (maybe with some new fancy name)
having completley different architectures than we are used to.