Well, actually it DOES make them less impressive... because once you look, actually look objectively, at how x86 continues to close the gap, you realize that th

Well, actually it DOES make them less impressive... because once you look, actually look objectively, at how x86 continues to close the gap, you realize that the day is coming when mainframes will go away or be otherwise not distinguishable. Look: when the 486 came out circa 1989, its memory bandwidth to RAM was about 70MB/second. That was the speed of a single disk channel for an IBM mainframe, a huge difference in performance specs. Interconnects? NUMA? Heck the 486 wasn't even good for 2-way SMP - while the mainframe could be hooked up into a clustered sysplex (1994, or the earlier virtual coupling facility) and even mirrored over long distance links (GDPS). Look at the way these differences have been minimized in recent times ... the mainframe chip borrows its GX IO chip from POWER, fer cryin' out loud...