----- Original Message ---- From: zMan <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wed, September 5, 2012 5:17:37 PM Subject: Re: zEC12, and previous generations, "why?" type question - GPU computing.
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 2:28 PM, Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) < [email protected]> wrote: > In <[email protected]>, > on 09/05/2012 > at 11:45 AM, "McKown, John" <[email protected]> said: > > >If it is because the z architecture is "not good" at numeric > >computation, > > The z architecture is fine for numeric computations. The problem is > that the implementation is competing with processors manufactured in > bulk. If IBM could sell millions of z boxen then they'd be able to cut > the price dramatically. > > I've always wondered what would have happened had IBM used a 370 > instruction set on the PC instead of Intel. >"16MB ought to be enough for anybody"? :-) >Since IBM wasn't manufacturing the chips, of course that wasn't even on the >table, but it's still a VERY interesting Gedankenexperiment... -- zMan -- "I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it" They could have gone with the Motorola 6800x chips instead. However, I am not sure that Motorola would have committed to producing as many chips as IBM thought they needed. The 6800x is what was used for the 370 part of the PC-370 systems. Lloyd ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
