Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: What's the future of the mainframe?
Message-ID: <3648@killer.UUCP>
Date: 10 Mar 88 08:53:45 GMT
References: <1461@polyslo.UUCP>
Organization: Bayou Telecommunications
Lines: 29

in article <1461@polyslo.UUCP>, jmckerna@polyslo.UUCP (John L McKernan) says:
> narrow these days. All mainframe really means is maximum computing power with
> maximum memory. The reason supercomputers are not general purpose is because
> general purpose uses have no need of a modern supercomputer's power. It's
> cheaper and cleaner to use a minicomputer as a front end. Since the demand for
> increased power and memory is essentially infinite forever, the demand for
> mainframes is essentially infinite forever.
2

The reason supercomputers are not general purpose is simply that they aren't.
A general purpose mainframe handles hundreds of users doing all sorts of
things.  A Cray handles maybe 20 users, running huge number-crunching
programs. It's like me trying to say that my Colecovision is a computer.
After all, it has a microprocessor, right? But, it simply performs a totally
different task. A Cray isn't going to handle 300 users running various and
sundry, and your typical mainframe isn't going to run math-oriented programs
anywhere near as fast as a Cray. And my Colecovision isn't going to challenge
the Commodore 64 as king of low-cost computers -- for one thing, it has no
keyboard :-).

If there is a falling-out in the mainframe market, as users discover they can
do things cheaper with smaller computers, the sales of Cray Research won't be
hurt one tiny bit....

--
Eric Lee Green  elg@usl.CSNET    Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191        
{cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg        Lafayette, LA 70509              

"Human evolution ended when civilization began".