[rescue] iAPX-432, was Re: sparc10 cpu - what to do.

[John Hudak]

yea, ditto on equating the machine to the application.  I used to not
acknowledge big iron from IBM because it seemed they were peddled to banks
and accounting firms that were primarily a ....cough...cough....COBAL
shops. I mean, how can you embed a 'COBOL' machine on an aircraft????
 It wasn't till I started on my HW arch path and learning the cool tricks
IBM and CDC pulled to make execution go faster....e.g. scoreboarding,
Tomasulu algorithm, initial attempts at extracting and supporting in hw
ILP....neat stuff...(too bad it was wasted on COBOL..lol j/k)
J



On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 12:53 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
wrote:

> On 12/21/2016 02:39 AM, Chris Hanson wrote:
> >>  (Nobody seems to know this, but AS/400s are actually phenomenally
> >> well-designed, well-architected, and generally fantastic machines.)
> >
> > I always thought it was quite well-known, just that the general use of
> AS/400
> > hasnb t been to run interesting software like Smalltalk.
>
>   Not to be contrary, but...Nobody else (except for one guy) that I've
> ever talked to, even the most hard-core tech people, had any idea that
> AS/400s were cool.  The only one who knew is the one who explained it to
> *me*; he's my AS/400 mentor.
>
>   And I don't find Smalltalk to be particularly interesting! B-)
>
>   (yeah, I know, I should probably give it another look..)
>
>   But your general point is well made.  AS/400s are typically accounting
> machines, and accounting is boring.  Too many of us tend to
> subconsciously link the coolness of a machine with the coolness of its
> typical application, and that's a big mistake.  I did that myself for
> many years without even knowing it.
>
>                -Dave
>
> --
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA
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