> When Amdahl started selling processors, the operating system > was free. When IBM started to charge for it, they knew how much > power an Amdahl processor had and where it fit in the pricing > structure. It's harder for them to know that with am emulator. > What stops you from putting in faster processors, or additional > processors?
Rare to see so much ignorance masquerading as authority. a) IBM didn't have a clue how much power an Amdahl (or any other pocessor) had. Amdahl (and I was part of the process) "declared" its processors to IBM. The late (and missed) Henry Cassel's team was responsible - Tom Moore and others of the FBUPALS. Huge efforts were made to make the declaration accurate - if you "under-declared" the user got cheap software but IBM's sales effort would disparage the machine against its own. If you "over-declared" the opposite was true - you got bragging rights but the software was more expensive. And I was also one of the team that "re-declared" the Amdahl 5990-1100 after an IBM announcement. If you think IBM is bad, try getting CA to accept a downwards re-declaration. b) You obviously know NOTHING about emulation, or at least commercial emulation. Fundamental's FLEX-ES is controlled these days by a USB dongle that defines the permitted performance and number of engines. Yes, you can rehost onto a faster Intel processor or add engines - but FSI's code works with the dongle to deliver exactly the licensed "MIPS" on the number of engines licensed. You buy 8 MIPS (actually 7.9) and you get 8 MIPS. There is no uncertainty in the process whatever. It's even more complex - each dongle has a time-limited software key associated with it and the key must be refreshed periodically. (And I remember standing on the top of a fire escape in a hotel in Budapest downloading such a key into my Nokia mobile phone from an FTP site in Fremont at around 03:00am a few years back.) -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
