Any Pr1me fans out there?

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Tue Sep 8 19:53:15 1998

On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Tony Duell wrote:

> > Workstation: a computer designed to run Unix with a bitmapped display.
>
> This one actually had an official definition when workstations were first
> designed. It was called the '3M' criteria (nothing to do with the 3M of
> tape/disk fame).
>
> The 3 M's were :
>
> Megabyte - approximately 1 Megabyte or more of RAM
>
> Megapixel - a bitmapped display with about 1 million pixels (or more)
>
> MIPS - about 1 VAX MIPS (11/780-speed) of CPU power
>
> To those I would add
>
> Personal - it's designed to be used by one person sitting in front of it.
> It's not _designed_ for remote logins (although of course it may support
> them). It may or may not be multitasking
>
> Networkable - However, it is designed to be networked to other machines.

The problem with this definition is that it would include a PC running
Windows. Very few seem to be willing to call that a workstation.

A workstation has to be *designed* to be networked, graphical, and
multitasking. The Amiga would have been a workstation if it has
networking built-in. If somebody built a PC that had networking built-in
and ran Windows NT, but could not run MS-DOS, I might be willing to call
that a workstation.

> > Programmable calculator: a computer without general-purpose alphanumeric
> > data processing and display facilities.
>
> We have this debate at HPCC (UK HP user club). The general view there is
> that a calculator is designed for numeric operations (although it may
> well have alphanumeric ones as well), and probably has separate keys for
> common maths functions like SIN and LOG.

When HP came out with the 9800 series, they introduced three models: the
9810, 9820, and 9830. The first two were classed as "function per key"
calculators to distinguish them from the 9830, which was really a
computer.

> Something like an HP48 is clearly a calculator, but it has string
> handling, list operations, I/O, etc as standard. It can even drive a
> video display (or at least mine does....)

I consider the HP48 to be solidly a hybrid. It has all the elements to be
classed a handheld computer. In addition, it also has a user interface
that makes it easy to use as a calculator. The 41 and 28 are in the same
camp. The 9100, 9810, 9815, 65, etc are all solidly in the "programmable
calculator" camp simply because they don't handle full alphanumerics.

-- Doug
Received on Tue Sep 08 1998 - 19:53:15 BST

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