Re: Newbie question on table design.

paul c wrote:
> paul c wrote:
>

>> -CELKO- wrote:
>> ....
>>
>>> Yes, but it discovered large data sets from the start since it was a
>>> scientific machine.  Ever see a data cell machine?
>>> ...
>>
>>
>>
>> capacity something like 400 MB in 1969, considered gigantic at the 
>> time, half-second access time, cost about CAD 250,000.  ...

also, not sure if you could even buy them then or around 1965 when the 360's made their splash, the price was nominal to satisfy accountants, either or both corporate or governmental and leasing was the only way to acquire. the even bigger money was in maintenance fees and buyer lock-in.

much smaller world then. around 1990, i asked some knowledgeable hardware types how many mainframes there were in the world and how many were sold per year, of 3033 class (speed of what was called a "couple of mips") and the general concensus seemed to be several thousand, with a big sales year for Hitachi, Amdahl and IBM consisting of several hundred boxes sold. i know some 4341/4381's approached that mip rating, but find it hard to believe that there were many customers who ordered hundreds of them.

Multiply those numbers by a few dozen or a hundred real programmers for each cpu and it's not hard to see why brain-washed oldtimers wax nostalgic or why there is so much commercial chaos now, with hundreds of thousands of accomplished programmers who have an equal right to believe they have seen the truth.

p

p Received on Fri May 04 2007 - 01:32:29 CEST