I like the car analogy.
The car engine is old technology that hasn't changed for over 100 years.
Everything around the engine has changed, and the materials used have
improved, but the basic principle of the engine has not changed. The pistons
still go up and down, valves open and close, crankshafts, camshafts, etc,
etc.
In these days of global warming, the car needs a new type of engine - it
must evolve.
I like to think of Intel the same way. Admittedly Intel processors have got
faster, and the technology around the processor has changed, but, the basic
underlying design has not changed. Memory is addressed in much the same as
it was when the first PC was created. 640K RAM + 384K for drivers, etc, and
extended/expanded memory.
Can the Intel really evolve to a new technology or is it stuck where it is.
In the contrast the Power technology in the system I is light years ahead of
Intel. Always evolving.
Syd
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Thorbjoern Ravn Andersen
Sent: 29 December 2009 13:33
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Code donations for RPGUI initiative
Dr. Syd Nicholson skrev:
If everything can run on a single platform (Intel) then we don't need IBM
-
they cease to be a hardware company. All the research into new technology
-
is it going to have a market?? Similarly, we don't need HP or Sun or any
of
the other platform manufacturers, the only thing we need are companies
that
manufacture Intel boxes.
Software can run on many platforms if written correctly. Java attests
to that, but it also demonstrates that the AS/400 platform was designed
for something else.
The difference in computers are very similar to the difference in
cars[1]. There is a vast different between a dragster and a semi truck
even though the both are cars. Intel CPU's have reached a point where
the bottleneck is getting data to and from memory (hence the dragster)
as opposed to systems where the important thing is moving data around.
Using x86's for everything just makes cheap dragsters.
There is, however, a vast advantage in using a portable language, since
it makes it much easier to choose the appropriate vehicle for a given
task. This is probably also why most vehicles are controlled very
similar - makes it possible to reuse the drivers elsewhere :)
I believe the hardware merging on the POWER platform is probably the
best thing that could happen there, since it makes it cheaper (which is
the x86 advantage) and allows concentrating on the software.
</soapbox>
[1] Car analogies are nice :)
midrange.com
