Re: is Vax addressing sane today

On Sun, 6 Oct 2024 00:43:56 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Fri, 04 Oct 2024 15:07:17 GMT, Anton Ertl wrote:
 

Power still survives, maybe only because it has a common basis with
iSeries (or whatever it is called now). 

 
As I understand it, iSeries is the emulation of the old AS/400 on
POWER processors. And AS/400 was the unification of the older
System/38 with the System/34? System/36? lines.
 
System/38 (or AS/400, or iSeries) has/had this interestingly unusual
architecture which builds database features right into the OS kernel,
so that they can be used everywhere. And it also uses capabilities as
an alternative to the traditional privilege-mode hierarchy. Neither
of these ideas says much for performance, but they still suggest some
interesting possibilities, nonetheless.
 
Native POWER is, I think, called pSeries. It continues to sell in its
own right because it offers high performance--

https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/B425DZZ1
Try to find word POWER (or Power systems) in this 128-page document.
Then may be you will get the idea of how important it is according to
IBM management.

Compare with 5, 10 and 15 years ago (in the oldest report look for
system p)
https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM_Annual_Report_2018.pdf
https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM_Annual_Report_2013.pdf
https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/IBM_Annual_Report_2008.pdf

high enough to earn a
few ongoing spots near the top of the Top500 supercomputer list.

This misunderstanding cleared by Anton.