4 Jun
2013
4 Jun
'13
3:29 p.m.
On 06/04/2013 03:40 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
...which is where they belong. Sun *workstations* aren't needed anymore
because cheap PeeCee hardware actually has usable graphics now. They didn't
back then. They didn't "go up against Intel" at all...they owned that
market, because of graphics capabilities, and when cheap PC hardware could do
it, it did.
OK, good. That's exactly the direction I wanted you to go.
*sigh* You have more free time than anyone else I know.
Except where it matters.
That may very well be. But if it does happen, it's a long way off. My new
Core i7 Quad is now JUST able to keep up with my eight-year-old Sun V480 that
I just decomissioned. At almost three times the clock rate. If anything
causes "slow death" anytime soon, it's not likely to be PeeCees. It might
be
ARM, but that'd be a ways off too, for that level of performance.
Or we could just wait and see. I'll keep doing it, and you keep writing
about it.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
Of course.
But why I said what I said above, out of exasperation, is that
you call architectures that are currently developed, sold, and used, and have
been for decades, with no end in sight, "failures". That's insane.
They went up against Intel. They used to come in a wide variety of
machines: low-end to high-end desktop, laptop, small server, big
server.
They don't any more. Now they are high-end or nothing. So, my next
question is: what if (or more to the point,when) cheap PC hardware
delivers the same features & performance that SPARC and POWER do for
servers now?
If and when something BETTER comes along, they will be displaced, of
course. This is textbook first-year economics.
But it has to be BETTER. Clueless outfits will buy the cheap crap, just as
they do now, and just as they always have, since it has been available. But
where build quality and reliability matters, you won't see any eMachines (or
similar) sitting on rackmount shelves in datacenters anytime soon.
Do not attempt to "lead" me in this manner again. It is childish and
petty, and it is a waste of your time and mine. Up until now I've derived
*some* degree of enjoyment from our debates...but when you start acting like
your predictions are automatically foregone conclusions, and then you try to
"lead" people in this way, it just becomes little more than infuriating.
Of course that may be what you're going for. But your writing is good
enough, and your OPINIONS are well-thought-out enough that I'm sure you're
not a complete idiot...so I doubt you're just so bored as to spend your time
riling people up on mailing lists. So I guess I just don't know what to make
of you and your motivations.
Be careful;
that "niche" is where a lot of heavy lifting gets done.
Yes indeed. It's turning into a commodity market, which tends to mean
lowest-common-denominator kit. We'll
see what happens in 5Y, and I suspect (and hope) that you and I will be there
to discuss it, but those machines have been there for a very long time, and I
don't see them going anywhere.
Not overnight, no. But I foresee gradual shrinkage. A slow death, just
like Itanium.