Introduction

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Fri May 1 03:39:05 1998

Tony Duell wrote:

>> Heck, I'd like to see a good computer taxonomy (you know, kingdom=digital,
>> phylum=silicon, class=portable, order=laptop, family=grid,
>> genus=1500-series, species=1535-EXP).
>
> On the grounds that all laptops are portables, I think I'd rather see
> something like
>
> kingdom = {analogue, digital, quantum}
> Phylum = {silicon, GaAs, Germanium (?), hollow-state, mechanical}
> Class = {Mainframe, Mini, Workstation, Micro}
> Order = {Rackmount, deskside, desktop, luggable, laptop, notebook, palmtop}
>
> (I know of at least one luggable mini, and I think a Sparcbook could
> reasonably be called a laptop workstation)

Ummm. Given the number of hybrids around (as we have seen from more
recent posts), your system might be better. But AFAIK in the taxonomy
used by biologists etc. the list of available classes is different for
each phylum, the list of available orders different for each class, etc.

But I have a computer that is hybrid analogue/digital (an EAI-1000, I
think it's called, which is an analogue computer with a microprocessor
doing an embedded control type job to run the system)...

Philip.

PS Luggable Mini = P850?
Received on Fri May 01 1998 - 03:39:05 BST