Re: Product idea

On Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:22:49 -0600, Dennis <dennis@none.none> wrote:

On 2/12/25 12:27, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

 A few kW of computers costs much more

than a few kW of nichrome wire resistance elements.

>
I remember back in the ECL mainframe days the waste heat was used to
heat the computer center. When IBM announced a new series with much
lower power consumption we proposed a spoof commercial with a bunch of
people huddled around their new mainframe discussing doubling their
compute power to get enough heat.
>
My research advisor was telling us when he used an IBM 650 (tube based!)
in Montana they had a low heating bill in the winter, but the summer air
conditioning bill was high.

The 650 had hardware floating point, including divide. With tubes. The
mind boggles.