Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!udel!burdvax!gvlv2!kleonard
From: kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What is a Mainframe?
Keywords: high-performance
Message-ID: <230@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>
Date: 5 Jun 89 13:13:20 GMT
References: <125@ssp1.idca.tds.philips.nl> <20752@winchester.mips.COM> <26207@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <69i602JV30vA01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <8442@june.cs.washington.edu>
Distribution: comp.arch
Organization: Unisys Great Valley Laboratory
Lines: 17

In article <8442@june.cs.washington.edu> drk@uw-june.UUCP (Dan Kerns) writes:
* In article mat@uts.amdahl.com (Mike Taylor) writes:
* >We could start a whole new debate - what is a mainframe?  We make them...
* This could really be interesting.  What with micro-mainframes,...
* So, what is a mainframe?
Wellllll........  A mainframe is:
  1)  a way to use up computational horsepower in "managing" user "access"
      instead of making it available to the users.
  2)  a way to increase the importance of the "MIS" manager's position.
  3)  a way to minimize the users' control over the work they need to do.
  4)  a way to justify exorbitant software costs.
  5)  not the same as a shared (files, I/O, archive, mail, etc.) server.
  6)  not the same as a shared, high-performance computational server.
  7)  not the same as a shared (database, transaction, etc.) server.
  8)  any hardware implementation which allocates more cost to user separation
      than to user service.
Grrruuuuummmmmppphhhh?