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nano, as they're loosely tied to physical size. The "Venn diagrams"
of each set does have some intersecting areas. <span
class="moz-smiley-s1"><span> :-) </span></span><br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 02/07/2016 06:57 PM, Matt wrote:<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid:56B7E7F8.4020408@the.narro.ws" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On 02/07/2016 07:52 PM, david wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Nits to pick:
Computers:
mainframe -- huge, multi-million dollar dinosaurs that have 1 to few
processors but engineered to serve thousands of ($$$) terminals and
designed to centralize data and functions. Examples IBM, Unisys, Honeywell;
mini-computer -- washing machine sized computers, mostly for engineering
departments. examples DEC PDP 8, PDP 11, Wang mini's, and so on. Cost
tens of thousands of dollars and up;
micro-computers -- desktop machines originally designed for
single-person computing, but boy, did it grow up! Cost around $1,000
and up;
Now, we have what I term the pico-computers (to follow the name history)
-- mostly designed as embedded device, grew into system-on-chip capable
of handling some desktop functions as long as they are not
comute-intensive. Cost $5 to a few hundred, with peripherals covering a
wide spectrum.
What's next? A nano-comuter (quantum machines?) Interfaces to humans
still gonna cost the same as all tiers but the (outdated) mainframe.
Capable of enormous compute power, memory requirements/accomodations
will be phenomenally large.
Meaningless historical trivia: The IBM PC was designed as a *terminal*
only, for their mainframes and the IBM engineers and marketers had
deduced it was incapable of operating as a stand-alone computer.
Follow-on trivia: in 1983, I designed and installed a network of PC's in
a department in a nuclear power plant, for purposes of database,
record-keeping, and some compute-intensive jobs. When IBM came out and
examined what I had done, they turned white as a sheet and said, out
loud and to the room, "This is impossible." And after the PC has
already established itself as a capable (sort of) stand-alone office
computer. Yet it worked for many years. My OS of choice at that time
was QNX, a variant of UNIX, of course.
David Merchant
Man, how I do ramble sometimes.
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<pre wrap="">
David,
Where does the quad core android phone in my pocket fit on this chart?
#matt
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