IBM 7074 and then some: "Systems we love" conference

[Paul Koning]

> On Jan 23, 2017, at 2:16 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
> 
> On 01/23/2017 11:00 AM, Steven Maresca wrote:
>> Just wanted to share an excerpted story just sent to me by a
>> colleague, regarding an IBM 7074 supplying data to Java middleware,
>> ultimately feeding a modern webapp stack: 
>> http://thenewstack.io/happens-use-java-1960-ibm-mainframe/
> 
> The 7074 was referred to as a "supercomputer".  Can any decimal machine
> really bear that title?

I suppose it could.  I would apply the term to a computer that's the fastest out there by a fair margin, and uses innovative or distinctive bits of architecture to make it so.  A CDC 6600 clearly qualifies on that basis, as do the Cray 1 and the ILLIAC IV.  I've heard the IBM Stretch mentioned as well, I don't know it enough to comment.  It seems hard to imagine that a decimal machine could overcome the inherent disadvantages of being decimal so successfully that it can reach supercomputer status, but in theory I suppose it might be possible.

	paul