Re: Hashing for DISTINCT or GROUP BY in SQL

paul c <anonymous_at_not-for-mail.invalid> writes:
> Also heard that IBM's mainframe salesmen who made big commissions
> selling the hardware to run IMS (not sure exactly when the software
> itself was 'unbundled') ran an active campaign within IBM to discredit
> Codd. It was very personal and nasty and may have caused him to have
> a stroke.

presumably as a result of various litigation (including by the gov) ... there was the 23jun69 unbundling announcement and starting to charge for "application" software (although they managed to make the case that kernel software should still be free). misc. past posts mentioning unbundling
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#unbundling

one of the other things I worked on as undergraduate at the univ. was a mainframe clone controller ... four of us we written up & blamed for being responsible for some amount of the clone controller business. some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#360pcm

then in the early 70s the company started the future system effort ... which was going to completely replace the existing 360/370 mainframe architecture ... and was as different as 360 had been different from previous generations. various articles claim a major motivation was the clone controller business. since there wasn't going to be any more 360/370 mainframe ... those software & hardware product pipelines were allowed to go dry. then when future system effort failed, there was a mad rush to get hardware & softare products back into the 370 pipeline. the distraction of the future system effort is claimed to have contributed significantly to allowing mainframe clones (like amdahl) to gain market foothold. misc. past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

some of it is also discussed in this article: http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm

and also in this paper
http://www.ecole.org/Crisis_and_change_1995_1.htm

one of the results of the mainframe clones gaining market foothold and then mad rush to get stuff back into the product pipeline ... was decision to start charging (also) for kernel software. during the future system period, I had continued to work on 370 software (and was making less than complimentary comments about how feasable/practical FS was). Then, in the mad rush to get 370 software back into the product pipeline ... some piece of what I had been doing was chosen for product release ... and also selected to be the guinea pig for starting to charge for kernel software (i had to spend time with business people on policies for charging for kernel software).

now, amdahl left before future system effort and claimed not to know anything about it. however, he gave a seminar in large auditorium at MIT in the early 70s about starting his new clone computer business. One of the questions from the audience was how did he convince the people to fund his operation. He made some reference to customers had already spent something like $200B on developing 360-based software and even if IBM were to completely walk away from 360 (might be considered a veiled reference to FS), that was enough to keep him in business through the end of the century.

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970