2 ms·
> Mainframes descended directly from the technology of the first computers in the 1950s. Instead of being streamlined into low-cost desktop or server use, thoug
by rob74 3y ago
> Mainframes descended directly from the technology of the first computers in the 1950s. Instead of being streamlined into low-cost desktop or server use, though, they evolved to handle massive data workloads.
I think the first sentence is 100% correct, but the second one not so much: current desktops and servers (not to mention laptops, tablets, smartphones etc. etc.) evolved from the first microcomputers introduced in the 1970s with the idea of having a computer (albeit initially a not very capable one) that anyone could afford. These then quickly evolved during the 1980s and 1990s to cover most of the applications for which you would have needed a mainframe a few years earlier.
- dralley 3y agoIt's still somewhat true. Desktop CPUs have hardware acceleration for things like video decoding, mainframes have hardware acceleration for things like encryption / decryption, compression / decompression, fixed-decimal arithmetic, etc.
- peterfirefly 3y agoPlenty of x86 CPUs have had crypto instructions in the last decade or so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_SHA_extensions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_SHA_extensions
- hinkley 3y agoCentralization versus distribution. Each person has a box in which they are essentially the sole tenant, versus a big box that has to have a bunch of sophistication to handle multitenancy.