29 Jan
2013
29 Jan
'13
9:35 p.m.
On 29/01/2013 15:18, microcode at zoho.com wrote:
On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 10:04:24AM -0500, Christian
Gauger-Cosgrove wrote:
How can you manage to get
so many misconceptions into a couple of
sentences...
Over the years IBM have slipped in and out of water cooling. The "lowly"
43xx machines were all air cooled. S/360 and most S/370 were mostly air
cooled. Water cooling is expensive....
The high end VAX machines are faster than the low end 4331 which is real
sluggard when it comes to non-word aligned operations (as is the
original 9370) but I am note sure I would class either the 4331 or the
9371 as "mainframes"...
When I worked for the Natural Environment Research Council I am sure we
always rated out single CPU 4381 model 4 about the same as our biggest
VAX., which I think was a 8000 but I can't actually remember. Again I am
not too sure if the 4381 is a main frame or a very big fast mid-range
box, but in its day it was popular...
Earlier than that we certainly considered out Honeywell L66 a mainframe
but that wasn't water cooled either. ...
I don't think there is real definition of a Mainframe, its what you want
it to be at the time....
On 29 January 2013 05:39, <microcode at
zoho.com> wrote:
No. Every series until the IBM
CMOS machines was water cooled as far as I
remember although not every model in every line was water cooled. Up through
S/390 and including the ES/9000. Even the lowly 43XX (which was more
powerful than the biggest VAX ever made) was watercooled. Watercooled IBM machines like S/360, S/370. If it
isn't watercooled and
doesn't need raised floor, it's just a mini.
By that logic, the only machines that count are the System/360 Model
85 and the 195.
Since the other S/360s and S/370s were air-cooled. Everywhere I ever worked until the CMOS days had
watercooled machines and
raised floor. That was the real "big iron" worthy of being called machines.
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_intro4.html
--
Dave Wade G4UGM
Illegitimi Non Carborundum