Corrections to trivia

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Sun Oct 11 10:56:17 1998

< So, is Columbus less important because the Vikings reached the Americas
< before him? Or is it only important that most of the lasting effects
< descend from Columbus?

since I'm not a student of this general branch of history I can't comment
accuractly. It would seem to me the big differnece was the wave of
colonization that resulted.

Better put, the vikings were here. Columbus told the world two things,
it's not flat and there are great riches in the east. Somewhere in ther
is the difference in those explorations goals.

< Yes this is OT, but it mirrors one of the recent arguments on ClassicCmp
< and it could be argued either way because both arguments have validity.
< It comes down to what the individual thinks is 'important'.

True. The consideration is not the indiviual importance of any item but
it's impact on the collective picture. What is significant is the picture
was in some respects a collection of snapshots in time without continuity
or context. There were/are pieces missing from the puzzle and it would
be nice to fill them in. For example; Two of the oldest computing models
Harvard and Von Neuman date back to the first machines yet they influence
machines still. To make the picture complete we also need to know if
there are other models and what they are.

An aside to this is while Intel is currently the apparent successful
leader en masse we still don't know how it will play over time yet to
come. There have been near reversals in the past and it would only take
the next design leap to change the current course. Also the industry is
only 30 years old in a century where we are still developing fundemental
technologies.

My example for that is in the late 70s and early '80s everyone said that
16bit CPUs would wipe the 8bitters away. It sorta did, but not to the
projected extent. There would be a wave of 8bitters like the Kaypro,
ampro, SB180 to name a few in the 84-86 window and later. The 16 bit
machine really didn't reflect enough of an improvement as the next level
needed more. I'd say Apple knew (tripped on) this when they did the jump
from 6502 to 68000 (internally 32bit). It would be 32 bit cpus that would
have the real impact. I expect that while Merced and Alpha are having an
impact we have yet to see the next significant impactor. While we are
going much faster, the way we compute is still logically similar to some
very old machines.

Allison
Received on Sun Oct 11 1998 - 10:56:17 BST