8 Sep
1998
8 Sep
'98
12:53 p.m.
On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
The problem with this definition is that it would include a PC running
Windows. Very few seem to be willing to call that a workstation.
A workstation has to be *designed* to be networked, graphical, and
multitasking. The Amiga would have been a workstation if it has
networking built-in. If somebody built a PC that had networking built-in
and ran Windows NT, but could not run MS-DOS, I might be willing to call
that a workstation.
When HP came out with the 9800 series, they introduced three models: the
9810, 9820, and 9830. The first two were classed as "function per key"
calculators to distinguish them from the 9830, which was really a
computer.
Workstation: a
computer designed to run Unix with a bitmapped display.
This one actually had an official definition when workstations were first
designed. It was called the '3M' criteria (nothing to do with the 3M of
tape/disk fame).
The 3 M's were :
Megabyte - approximately 1 Megabyte or more of RAM
Megapixel - a bitmapped display with about 1 million pixels (or more)
MIPS - about 1 VAX MIPS (11/780-speed) of CPU power
To those I would add
Personal - it's designed to be used by one person sitting in front of it.
It's not _designed_ for remote logins (although of course it may support
them). It may or may not be multitasking
Networkable - However, it is designed to be networked to other machines. Programmable
calculator: a computer without general-purpose alphanumeric
data processing and display facilities.
We have this debate at HPCC (UK HP user club). The general view there is
that a calculator is designed for numeric operations (although it may
well have alphanumeric ones as well), and probably has separate keys for
common maths functions like SIN and LOG. Something like an HP48 is clearly a calculator, but it
has string
handling, list operations, I/O, etc as standard. It can even drive a
video display (or at least mine does....)
I consider the HP48 to be solidly a hybrid. It has all the elements to be
classed a handheld computer. In addition, it also has a user interface
that makes it easy to use as a calculator. The 41 and 28 are in the same
camp. The 9100, 9810, 9815, 65, etc are all solidly in the "programmable
calculator" camp simply because they don't handle full alphanumerics.
-- Doug