Ian King wrote:
I must ask: is this at all important?
It might make some people here feel better to know that there was a
place and a time when it was important. The 1984 law (number 7232) that
codified the "reserved market policy" that was in effect in Brazil from
1977 to 1992 made it illegal for foreign companies to make mini or
microcomputers in the country, but mainframes were ok (both IBM and
Burroughs had local factories). The definitions of which were which were
not a part of that law itself, nor the complementary 1986 law (number
7463). I do remember that a new category of "super minis" was added in
the mid 1980s (probably explicitly to keep high end VAXes from being
counted as mainframes) and then "workstations" in the late 1980s (which
became legal to import in certain circumstances).
-- Jecel