[Gllug] Laptops?

[Ian Northeast]

Henrik Morsing wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Rich Walker wrote:
> 
> 
>>Henrik Morsing <henrik at morsing.cc> writes:
>>
>>
>>>>The POWER4 is a full 64-bit mainframe monster.
>>>
>>>I don't think mainframes use the POWER processor but I've just tried to
>>>find something on the Internet and can't so...
>>
>>I thought the sole reason for the POWER4 and 5 was the mainframe
>>market. Who else installs water-cooled multi-chip-modules with 16 or 32
>>CPU's on?
> 
> 
> No, the POWER architecture was designed for IBMs midrange Unix computers,
> the RS/6000 now called pSeries. POWER4 is used in p630, p650, p670 and
> p690 and the POWER5 will upgrade those servers.

It's a matter of terminology really. Although it's termed a "mid range" 
server, a fully spec'ed p690 is physically larger and more powerful than 
a lot of "real" mainframes. And similarly priced. So calling it a 
mainframe isn't far off.

> If a POWER CPU has been used in a mainframe POWER4 was the first but I
> still have never heard of this. The mainframe is a completely different
> beast.

To the best of my knowledge the "true" mainframes - the z Series - still 
use their own CPUs with their (extremely) CISC.

Of course the one thing these behemoths have in common is that they will 
all run Linux. Just to keep things on topic:)

Regards, Ian


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