21 Aug
2010
21 Aug
'10
6:51 a.m.
On 2010 Aug 20, at 11:34 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 20 Aug 2010 at 22:42, Eric Smith wrote:
Well, I occasionally have to grit my teeth when I hear 'mainframe'
applied to more or less anything that is not a home/personal computer.
For the most part, from the lay perspective these days, it seems there
are just 'computers' (the thing on the table in front of you), and
'servers' (the thing at the other end of the ADSL/cable/phone/network
connection).
IBM System p, which is a POWER7 platform
integrating what was known as
System i, formerly known as iSeries, and before that, AS/400, which
was largely derived from the even earlier System/38.
Does IBM call it a minicomputer in its marketing literature? I'm
just wondering if the mainframe, mini and micro terms are vanishing.
After all, *everything* is a microcomputer nowadays, isn't it?
If so, what makes them a minicomputer?
History? Or that it doesn't fit very well in either the minicomputer
or mainframe categories?