29 Jan
2013
29 Jan
'13
9:34 p.m.
On 01/29/2013 12:17 PM, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove wrote:
I would think, though I am most definitely not an
expert, that a
System/360 Model 65 counts as a mainframe and as big iron, doesn't it?
Definitions change with time and technology.
Some would doubtless refer to a 360/30 as a mainframe. From a CDC 6600
or 7600 viewpoint, however, it was a little bitty machine. I'm not even
certain if "minicomputer" had made it into general usage by 1965.
Certainly there were other machines of that time (and earlier) that
could be called "minicomputers"--for example, the Packard-Bell
PB250--but never were--the term didn't exist then.
And then how about the nitrogen-cooled boxes, such as the ETA 10?
Physically smaller than many minicomputers.
It's just pointless to invent distinctions. It's like the Supreme Court
definition of pornography--I can't tell you exactly what it is, but I
know it when I see it.
--Chuck