Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 10:00:51 +0100 From: Johannes H Andersen <johsnopsamfitter.com> Subject: Re: A Macintosh Computers and A Saab?
Harry Davis wrote: > > Johannes > > You may have enjoyed using the DEC Alpha (this was the CPU in the last VAX > computers that DEC made) and VMS, but you won't anymore. DEC was bought by > Compaq and then Compaq merged with HP. I believe the Alpha manufacturing > plant was closed or leased to Intel. The Alpha processors are no longer > made. Yes, that's the way it goes. I think there were also some technology exchange with AMD. The DEC clustering was very impressive. Basically all work stations in cluster a were equivalent, so that you could use any of them. Unlike Windows, roaming actually worked, each local disk only served as a cache. You could summon processing power from any other work station in the cluster if required and available. This made for a very "hardened" system. Nevertheless, Windows NT took a lot of inspiration from VMS, it was designed by some of the same people. But in comparison, Windows is cheap and cheerful. Johannes