Re: backward architecture, The Design of Design

"Stephen Fuld" <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> writes:

The key innovation that IBM made with the S/360 was to announce
systems with a wide range of performance *at the same time*,
i.e. different Y values and the same X value.

I would argue that this property is only one of three factors
that made System/360 successful, and perhaps the least important
of the three.  The other two factors are, one, addressing both
business computing and scientific computing rather than having
separate models for the two markets, and two, replacing and
discontinuing all of IBM's other lines of computers.  I think
it's hard to overstate the importance of the last item.